CHRIST    IN    HADES: 


BY 

WILLIAM  W.   LORD 


(is  rbi/  aSrjv. 
SYMBOLUM  ATHA.NASIANUM. 

?i}e  fcescenDeli  fnto  jBJdl. 

THE  APOSTLES'  CREED. 

Mortem   suscepisse  et   vicisse,  intrasse   inferos   et   redisse,  venisse    in 
jura  Tartar! ,  et  Tartari  jura  solvisse,  non  est  fragilitas,  sed  potestas. 

PET.  CHRYSOLOGUS. 


NEW-YORK: 
D.    APPLETON    &    CO.,   200    BROADWAY 

PHILADELPHIA  : 
GEO.  S.  APPLETON,  164  CHESNUT-ST. 

M.DCCCLI. 


T 

ENTERED,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1851,  by 

WILLIAM  W.  LORD, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States,  for  the  District  of 
New  Jersey. 


7 

c 


TO 


HON.  WILLIAM  B.  KINNEY, 

WITH    THE 
HOPE    THAT    HIS    JUDGMENT    WILL    APPROVE    A    WORK 

TO     WHICH     FRIENDSHIP 
WILL    NOT    PERMIT   HIM    TO   BE    INDIFFERENT, 

(»  finscrfbeto, 


BY 


THE  AUTHOR. 


PREFACE. 


"Of  those  which  did  believe  the  name  of  Hades  to  belong 
unto  that  general  place  which  comprehended  all  the  souls  of 
men,  some  of  them  thought  that  Christ  descended  to  that  place 
of  Hades,  where  the  souls  of  all  the  faithful,  from  the  death  of 
the  righteous  Abel  to  the  death  of  Christ,  were  detained,  and 
there,  dissolving  all  the  power  by  which  they  were  detained  be 
low,  translated  them  into  a  far  more  glorious  place,  and  estated 
them  in  a  condition  far  more  happy  in  the  heavens  above.  *  *  * 
Another  opinion  hath  obtained,  especially  in  our  Church,  that 
the  end  for  which  our  Saviour  descended  into  hell  was  to  tri 
umph  over  Satan  and  all  the  powers  below,  within  their  own 
dominions.  And  this  hath  been  received  as  grounded  on  the 
Scriptures  and  consent  of  Fathers." — Pearson  on  the  Creed. 

IT  was  my  purpose,  in  undertaking  this  work, 
to  give  poetic  form,  design,  and  history  to  the 
descent  of  Christ  into  hell ;  a  fact  that  has  for  so 
many  ages  attracted  the  curiosity  of  the  human 
mind,  as  to  furnish  occasion  for  surprise  that  the 


VI  PREFACE. 

attempt  has  not  hitherto  been  made.  As  regards 
the  end  for  which  He  descended,  I  have  adhered 
to  the  Christian  tradition  that  it  was  to  free  the 
souls  of  the  ancient  saints  confined  in  the  temporal 
paradise  of  the  Under- world,  embracing  also  in  my 
design  the  less  general  opinion,  that  it  was  to  de 
monstrate  His  universal  supremacy  by  appearing 
among  the  damned. 

A  source  of  additional  human  interest  was  sug 
gested  by  the  relation  which  men,  as  a  distinct 
order  of  beings,  might  be  supposed  to  sustain  to 
demons  in  the  place  of  their  common  doom,  and 
under  new  conditions  of  existence ;  such,  I  con 
ceived,  as  would  make  it  possible  in  some  degree 
to  realize  even  the  divine  fictions  of  the  Greek 
mythology,  under  the  forms  and  with  the  attri 
butes  accorded  them  by  ancient  religions,  and  by 
the  poetry  of  all  time.  This  could  not  fail  to  sug 
gest  the  further  conception  of  introducing  the  divin 
ities  of  our  forefathers,  and  of  other  great  families 
of  mankind,  thus  bringing  together  in  action  and 
contrast  the  deified  men,  or  various  representatives 


PREFACE.  vii 

of  an  heroic  humanity,  among  different  races :  nor 
did  it  seem  too  great  a  stretch  of  imaginative  prob- 
ability  to  conceive  that  their  general  characteristics 
might  be  adopted  and  imitated  by  beings  already 
invested  by  the  human  mind  with  an  indefinite 
power,  and  inhabiting  a  world  in  which  the  won 
derful  becomes  the  probable. 

But  it  is,  after  all,  the  general  purpose  of  exhib 
iting  the  triumph  of  moral  power  over  all  physical 
and  inferior  spiritual  force,  in  the  descent  of  Christ 
into  hell,  which  gives  my  design  the  complex  char 
acter  of  a  mythic,  heroic,  and  Christian  poem,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  constitutes  the  unity  of  its  parts. 
The  ancients,  whose  representative  types  I  intro 
duce,  knew  and  appreciated  but  two  kinds  of 
power,  brute  or  physical,  and  spiritual,  including 
all  occult  and  supernatural  efficacy,  and  strength 
of  intellect  and  will.  Virtue,  triumphant  by  the 
aid  of  adventitious  force,  or  relying  upon  uncon 
querable  pride  and  disdain  to  resist  it,  was  the 
highest  reach  of  their  dynamic  conceptions.  Moral 
power  is  properly  a  Christian  idea.  It  is  not, 


Vili  PREFACE. 

therefore,  without  what  I  conceive  to  be  a  true  as 
well  as  a  poetic  apprehension  of  the  design  of  the 
Descent  into  Hell,  that  the  heroes  of  profane,  and 
the  not  fabulous  Titans  of  sacred  antiquity,  by 
their  rivalries  and  contentions,  brought  together 
in  arms  for  a  trial  of  their  comparative  strength, 
are  suddenly  confronted  with  a  common  and  dis 
similar  antagonist,  and  "all  strength,  all  terror, 
single  or  in  bands,  that  ever  was  put  forth" 
opposed  to  that  novel,  and,  save  in  the  Temptation, 
hitherto  untested  power,  represented  by  Christ,  the 
author  of  the  theory  and  master  of  the  example. 

He  is  not  supposed  to  appear  among  them 
"  grasping  in  his  hand  ten  thousand  thunders," 
but  endued  with  an  equal  power,  the  result  and 
expression  of  perfect  virtue  and  rightful  authority. 
His  triumph  is  attributed  neither  to  natural,  nor  to 
supernatural  power ;  but  to  moral  superiority, 
evincing  itself  in  His  aspect,  and  exercising  its 
omnipotence  upon  the  soul  and  conscience.  That 
in  the  conception  of  a  great  Christian  poet,  His 
appearance  among  the  rebel  angels  in  heaven  was 


PREFACE.  IX 

distinguished  by  the  former  attributes,  is  due,  per 
haps,  to  the  heroic  prejudice  of  a  mind  thoroughly 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  pagan  writers,  and  of 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures. 

As  to  invention  and  art,  if  a  poem  does  not 
commend  itself  by  the  interest  it  excites,  the 
author,  except  in  writing  it,  could  not  worse 
bestow  his  tediousness  than  in  its  defence  and 
exposition.  I  may  be  permitted  to  say,  how 
ever,  that  while  a  conviction  that  the  character  of 
my  own  performance  must  necessarily  bring  it 
into  comparison  with  greater  works,  could  not  de 
ter  me  from  undertaking  what  seemed  of  sufficient 
promise  to  justify  some  degree  of  daring,  I  am 
well  aware  that,  compared  with  these,  it  is  but  a 
symphony  to  a  strain — an  urn  to  a  temple ;  and  as 
such  let  it  be  judged.  The  reverence  for  great 
poets  which,  after  them,  would  give  no  hearing 
to  one  using  what  we  may  call,  for  convenience' 
sake,  the  Christian  mythology,  is  a  prejudice  as 
fatal  to  creative  art,  and  as  certainly  tending  to 
the  poverty  of  letters,  as  would  have  been  a  simi- 


X  PREFACE. 

lar  notion  among  the  Greeks  and  Eomans  with 
respect  to  the  mythology  to  which  Homer  in  like 
manner,  and  to  a  still  greater  degree,  gave  form 
and  expression.  The  question  in  such  cases  is  not 
whether  the  later  poet  uses  associations  established 
in  the  minds  of  men  by  earlier  poets, — if  it  werer 
even  Milton,  and  perhaps  Homer,  would  stand 
convicted  of  obligation  to  greater  inventive  ge 
nius, — but  whether  he  combines,  for  an  original 
purpose,  newly  discovered  with  existing  mate 
rials  ;  whether  the  impression  produced  is  that 
of  invention  and  novelty ; — not  whether  he  ori 
ginated  the  entire  mass  of  materials,  some  of 
which,  at  least,  are,  with  all  writers  who  endure 
the  test  of  time,  as  old  as  history  and  nature  : — in 
a  word,  it  is  whether  character  and  incident  are 
taken  from  existing  works,  or  are  the  result  of 
new  combinations,  which  flow  naturally  from  an 
original  design,  working  itself  out  in  intelligible 
poetic  forms. 

EASTRIDGE,  Dec.  8.  1850. 


UJTIVBRSIT 


ARGUMENT. 


BOOK    I. 

DISCOVERS  Satan  seated  in  despair  among  the  infernal 
powers,  upon  his  return  to  hell  after  his  defeat  in  the  Tempta 
tion  of  Christ. 

Baal,  an  angel  and  one  of  the  ethnic  deities,  rising  in  his 
place  among  the  dejected  fiends,  denounces  Satan  ;  accusing  him 
of  imbecility,  on  account  of  his  defeat  in  his  recent  trial  of  the 
divine  pretensions  of  Christ,  and  the  despair  into  which  he  is 
thrown  by  his  failure.  He  advises  that  some  other  take  the 
throne, — which  Satan,  not  ascending,  seems  voluntarily  to  have 
abdicated,  as  the  former  intimates,  in  view  of  the  predicted 
descent  of  his  Victor  into  that  world.  He  complains  that  they 
have  been  disappointed  in  their  hopes  of  relief  from  the  pains 
of  their  present  condition  through  the  agency  of  Satan,  and 
inveighs  against  the  human  race  in  hell,  and  their  elevation 
by  Satan  to  equal  dignity  and  power. 

Astarte,  a  female  angel  and  one  of  the  Sidonian  divinities, 


Xll  ARGUMENT. 

replies  ;  accusing  Baal  of  disloyalty  to  his  natural  sovereign,  and 
defending  Satan  from  his  imputations.  She  is  followed  by  Cain, 
who,  as  the  oldest  of  his  race  in  hell,  and  as  their  natural  head, 
has  been  elevated  by  Satan  to  the  place  next  himself.  He  re 
torts  the  taunts  of  Baal,  on  behalf  of  himself  and  his  kind,  defies 
and  denounces  him  and  his  faction.  In  consequence,  the  human 
and  the  angelic  powers  separate,  and  draw  off  under  their  re 
spective  leaders,  leaving  Satan,  where  the  opening  of  the  book 
discovers  him,  buried  in  apathy  and  despair. 


BOOK    II. 

The  inferior  paradise  and  its  inhabitants  described. 

Abel  narrates  to  Adam  and  the  Saints  a  vision,  in  which  the 
death  of  his  Antitype,  Christ,  is  revealed,  and  its  relation  to 
them,  and  to  mankind  in  general,  indicated.  At  the  conclusion 
of  the  narration,  the  Saints  break  forth  into  a  hymn,  in  which 
they  adore  the  Word  in  His  threefold  aspect  of  Creator,  Enlight- 
ener,  and  Redeemer  of  the  world,  and  implore  His  immediate 
presence  and  revelation  among  them,  in  their  world  of  banish 
ment  and  privation— banishment  from  Him.  and  privation  of  His 
light.  Christ  descends.  The  meeting  of  Christ  with  Adam, 
and  His  reception  by  the  Saints. 


BOOK    III. 

In  the  infernal   Hades  the  human  and  the  angelic  powers 
meet  in  the  field  to  test  their  comparative  strength,  and  decide 


ARGUMENT.  Xlll 

the  dominion  of  hell.  The  conflict,  yet  undecided,  is  termi 
nated,  through  divine  interference,  by  a  tempest  that  over 
whelms  both. 

BOOK    IV. 

Christ  in  Paradise  declares  to  the  Saints  the  purpose  of  His 
descent ;  explains  why  it  has  been  so  long  delayed ;  announces 
His  intention  of  passing  over  into  the  Tartarean  Hades  ;  and  in 
forms  them  of  what  is  there  performing,  viz.,  the  convening, 
through  their  contentions  and  rivalries,  of  the  infernal  powers, 
by  their  own  act,  but  in  the  divine  intention,  in  anticipation  of 
His  appearance  among  them. 


BOOK    V. 

In  Tartarus  the  angelic  forces,  withdrawn  from  the  field,  take 
counsel  how  to  retrieve  the  disaster  suffered  in  their  first  conflict 
with  the  human  powers.  Baal  accuses  the  tyranny  of  fate,  and 
advises  another  trial  of  their  fortune,  but  unavailingly.  Asmod 
rises  and  refutes  the  doctrine  of  fate,  and  denies  that  their  de 
feat  is  to  be  attributed  to  its  influence— concedes  the  equal 
power  of  the  human  spirits,  and  advises  a  secret  and  sudden 
assault ;  which  they  prepare  to  put  in  execution. 

The  human  powers,  convened  upon  similar  occasion,  are  ad 
dressed  by  Cecrops :  he  congratulates  them  upon  their  partial 
success,  but  argues  the  necessity  of  strengthening  themselves  by 
alliance  with  all  the  races  in  hell  of  a  common  origin — intimates 
that  the  Titans,  conceived  to  be  the  Antediluvian  or  Archaic 


XIV  ARGUMENT. 

race  of  men,  and  also  the  Asar,  the  Northern  heroes  and  deified 
men.  or  those  who  enacted  their  parts,  should  be  sought  in  the 
several  and  distinct  regions  of  hell  which  they  chose  to  inhabit, 
and  their  alliance  and  aid  solicited.  They  approve  the  project, 
and  send  ambassadors  to  the  Titans  and  the  Asar. 


BOOK   VI. 

The  Ambassador  to  the  Asar,  after  a  difficult  access  to  the 
region,  enters  the  imitated  Valhalla.  His  reception  by  the  Asar, 

The  Ambassador  to  the  Titans  discovers  and  addresses  them. 
His  reception  by  them  ;  their  rising. 


BOOK    VII. 

The  Asar,  seized  with  the  Berserker  fury  (see  note  2,  Book 
VI.)  at  the  sight  of  armed  strangers,  fall  upon  them  to  whose 
aid  they  had  been  summoned.  While  the  Northern  powers  are 
thus  engaged  in  contest  with  their  kind,  the  angelic  enemy 
make  their  attack  from  the  air. 

At  a  sound,  supposed  by  them  to  be  a  manifestation  of  the 
divine  power  for  their  overthrow  as  in  the  former  conflict,  the 
angelic  host  retire.  The  Titans  approach.  The  meeting  of  the 
Titans  and  the  later  races  of  mankind.  The  angelic  powers 
return  and  renew  the  assault,  and  the  whole  human  race  in  hell 
become  engaged  with  them  in  a  general  conflict. 


A  K  Q  U  M  I  N  T  .  XV 

BOOK    VIII. 

A  light  appears  on  the  side  of  hell  next  paradise,  and  Christ, 
followed  by  the  unarmed  host  of  saints,  approaches  the  embattled 
fiends  and  infernal  powers.  Terror-struck,  they  retreat  for  aid  to 
Satan  (who  has  hitherto  remained,  as  the  First  Book  describes  him, 
seated  apart,  and  indifferent  to  what  was  passing  in  his  domain). 
Satan  rises  and  advances  to  meet  Christ.  Their  meeting.  The 
triumph  of  Christ,  and  His  ascent  from  Hades  with  the  Saints. 


INVOCATION. 


THOU  of  the  darkness  and  the  fire,  and  fame 
Avenged  by  misery  and  the  Orphic  doom, 
Bard  of  the  tyrant-lay  !  whom  dreadless  wrongs, 
Impatient,  and  pale  thirst  for  justice  drove, 
A  visionary  exile,  from  the  earth, 
To  seek  it  in  its  iron  reign — 0  stern  ! 
And  not  accepting  sympathy,  accept 
A  not  presumptuous  oifering,  that  joins 
That  region  with  a  greater  name  :  And  thou, 
Of  my  own  native  language,  0  dread  bard ! 
Who,  amid  heaven's  unshadowed  light,  by  thee 
Supremely  sung,  abidest — shouldst  thou  know 
Who  on  the  earth  with  thoughts  of  thee  erects 
And  purifies  his  mind,  and,  but  by  thee, 


XV111  INVOCATION. 

Awed  by  no  fame,  boldened  by  thee.  and  awed — 
Not  with  thy  breadth  of  wing,  yet  with  the  power 
To  breathe  the  region  air — attempts  the  height 
Where  never  Scio's  singing  eagle  towered, 
Nor  that  high-soaring  Theban  moulted  plume, 
Hear  thou  my  song !  hear,  or  be  deaf,  who  may. 

And  if  not  rashly,  or  too  soon,  I  heed 
The  impulse,  but  have  waited  on  my  heart 
With  patience,  and  its  utterance  stilled  with  awe 
Of  what  inspired  it,  till  I  felt  it  beat 
True  cadence  to  unconquerable  strains  : 
Oh,  then  may  she  first  wooed  from  heaven  by  prayer 
From  thy  pure  lips,  and  sympathy  austere 
With  suffering,  and  the  sight  of  solemn  age, 
And  thy  gray  Homer's  head,  with  darkness  bound, 
To  me  descend,  more  near,  as  I  am  far 
Beneath  thee,  and  more  need  her  aiding  wing. 

Oh.  not  again  invoked  in  vain,  descend, 
Urania  !  and  eyes  with  common  light 
More  blinded  than  were  his  by  Heaven's  hand 
Imposed  to  intercept  distracting  rays, 
Bathe  in  the  vision  of  transcendent  day ; 
And  of  the  human  senses  (the  dark  veil 


INVOCATION.  XIX 

Before  the  world  of  spirit  drawn)  remove 
The  dim  material  hindrance,  and  illume ; 
That  human  thought  again  may  dare  behold 
The  shape  and  port  of  spirits,  and  once  more 
Hear  voices  in  that  distant,  shadowy  world, 
To  which  ourselves,  and  this,  are  shadows,  they 
The  substance,  immaterial  essence  pure — 
Souls  that  have  freed  their  slave,  and  given  back 
Its  force  unto  the  elements,  the  dread 
Manes,  or  the  more  dread  Archetypes  of  men  : 
Like  whom  in  featured  reason's  shape — like  whom 
Created  in  the  mould  of  God — they  fell, 
And,  mixed  with  them  in  common  ruin,  made 
One  vast  and  many-realmed  world,  and  shared 
Their  deep  abodes — their  endless  exile,  some, — 
Some  to  return  to  the  ethereous  light 
When  one  of  human  form,  a  Saviour-Man 
Almighty,  not  in  deity  alone, 
But  mightier  than  all  angels  in  the  might 
And  guard  of  human  innocence  preserved, 
Should  freely  enter  their  dark  empire — these 
To  loose,  o'er  those  to  triumph  ;  this  the  theme, 
The  adventure,  and  the  triumph  of  my  song. 


BOOK    I. 


BOOK   I. 

CAME  on  the  starless  age  of  the  uncheered 
Dark  night,  that  in  the  shadow  of  the  earth 
Hid  the  dead  Saviour  of  the  world,  and  gleamed 
Upon  the  warrior-watched  and  virgin  tomb 
Which  held  the  mortal  of  that  man  foredoomed 
To  visit  the  deep  region  of  the  dead, 
And  thence  to  reascend  both  earth  and  heaven, 
The  first  pale  day  ;  and  more  mean-time  the  gloom 
Deepened  in  hell — where,  motionless,  reclined 
The  sad  immortals,  chief  among  the  powers 
Of  earth  and  air,  giants  and  fallen  gods, 
And  looked  upon  each  other  without  word. 
Nor  might  the  grief  that  bowed  supremest  shapes, 
Nor  the  dumb  trouble  in  their  eyes,  find  voice 
2 


26  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

While  he  before  them  sat  who  with  a  word 
Had  made  them  voiceless,  and  spake  not  again. 
And  looked  not  up,  since  when  his  looked  despair 
Had  darkened  hell,  and  like  a  black  eclipse 
Covered  the  hope  that  was  its  only  day. 

Half  to  his  throne  ascended,  on  the  steep 
Sole-touched  by  his  proud  feet,  as  if  dethroned 
By  his  own  act,  and  into  ruin  fallen 
Self-hurled,  sat  Aidoneus,1  discrowned, 
With  foot  upon  a  broken  sceptre  set, 
And  head  stooped  forward  to  his  hands,  and  seemed, 
But  for  the  rising  and  the  slow  decline 
Of  his  wide-lifting  shoulders,  like  one  dead. 
And  dread  his  aspect,  even  to  their  eyes 
Used  to  all  sights  of  grandeur  and  despair, 
All  tragic  posture  and  the  pomp  of  woe  ; 
Not  only  for  his  immemorial  state 
Abandoned,  and  the  rightful  awe  that  still 
Sat  on  his  unkinged  head  and  vacant  hand, 
But  him  most  capable  of  grief  they  deemed 
Whose  strength  was  greatest  to  endure  or  dare, 
And  deepest  his  despair  whose  hope  was  first. 

So  there  before  him,  each  upon  his  throne. 


CHRIST     IN     HADES.  27 

Sat  as  if  throne  and  shape  were  but  one  stone  ; 

And,  for  that  space,  more  like  their  idols  seemed 

In  regions  orient,  sitting,  hushed  and  dark, 

Within  a  woody  cloister  of  close  palms, 

Or,  old  with  lifeless  years,  in  some  forgot, 

Rare-pilgrimed  temple,  or  dim  cavern,  ranged, — 

Unseen  by  all  the  stars.    At  length  to  break 

The  latent  chain  that  bound  the  force  of  limb 

And  faculty  in  each  fierce  spirit,  rose 

Barbarian  Baal ;  in  his  depth  of  shade, 

Save  by  their  gloomy  and  familiar  eyes, 

Not  from  the  dark  discerned  ;  in  shape  conjoined 

Angel  and  brute,  in  temper  brute,  but  strong, 

And  third  from  Satan  ;  whom  with  unfixed  glance, 

Under  low-dropped  and  sternly  neighboring  brows, 

He  now  regarded,  as  a  frenzied  beast 

On  his  still  dreaded  master  rolls  his  fierce, 

Inconstant  orbs.     Him,  ages  now,  unfed 

With  blood  of  slaughtered  bulls  and  fragrant  smoke, 

Sharp  hunger  seized,  and  lion-pangs,  to  taste 

Again  such  offerings,  and  repossess 

The  dark  and  secret  land,  whence  fled  of  late 

His  desperate  chief;  not  now  from  the  armed  voice 


SI7J3RSIT7 


28  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

Of  his  great  plaintiff,  summoning  its  bands 

Of  vassal  evils  ;  not  from  thunder  piled 

On  the  crushed  air,  and  titan-lightnings  hurled 

From  his  black  solitary  heaven,  high 

Above  all  reach ;  but  from  his  far-stretched  hand 

Disguised  as  human,  and  the  all-pure  force 

Of  virtue,  clad  in  human  voice  and  shape. 

Thus  hindered  of  that  hope,  and  chafed,  and  what 
Was  godlike  in  him  fired  with  shame,  to  think 
How  one  by  one  the  ethnic  gods  had  fallen, 
Disarmed,  before  the  constant  powers  of  heaven, 
Met  in  the  battle-region  of  the  earth — 
How  many  forced  by  slight  antagonists, 
Of  puny  frame  and  seeming,  from  their  old 
Usurped  domain, — himself,  on  Carmel's  top 
Amid  his  howling  prophets,  by  a  man, 
Defeated,  and  their  prowest,  in  the  wide 
And  wild  arena  where  he  met  the  last 
And  wondrous  apparition  marked  with  signs 
Of  Heaven  and  hostile  purpose  ; — by  such  scorns 
Panged  and  enraged,  and  long  made  pale  with  hate 
Of  gods  terrestrial-born,  but  equal  made 
With  the  celestial,  and  to  like  domain 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  29 

By  Satan  raised — the  mighty  bulk  stood  up, 
Strong  but  irresolute,  and  sought  to  throw 
The  weight  of  that  stern  presence  from  his  soul, 
And  from  its  ward  unlock  imprisoned  sound. 

But  scarce  they  heard  the  first  hoarse  breath,  that  died 
Ere  his  dumb  lips  had  shaped  it  to  a  word 
Of  any  import,  when  throughout  the  throng 
They  stirred,  and  grasped  their  arms,  as  if  some  ill, 
Long  pondered  and  expected,  from  the  heights 
Of  ether  suddenly  had  fallen  ;  he, 
Around  and  upward,  looked  with  listening  stare ; 
Then,  like  a  cloud  arming  in  heaven,  grew 
More  black  and  dreadful,  and  his  giant  peers, 
With  copied  brow,  frowned  back  dread  sympathy, 
Published  revolt  and  general  discontent : 
Yet  unprepared  they  heard,  when  words  like  these, 
Forth  poured  like  shaped,  articulate  thunder,  shook 
The  wide  Infern,  that  from  its  shadowy  sides, 
Of  deepest  region,  ruined  back  the  sound, 
As  when  one  shouts  within  a  hollow  cave. 

"  Abjects — once  gods  !  befits  it  now  that  he, 
Sole  cause  of  this  despair,  and  for  whose  sake 
We  suffer,  that  his  pride  may  play  at  Jove,2 


30  CHRIST       IN      HADES. 

God  of  this  subterraneous  world — with  us, 
His  toys,  for  subjects — should  here  sit  infirm, 
Like  his  Memnonian  image,  blind  and  deaf 
To  evils  that  can  add  to  grief  that  seemed, 
Ere  this,  at  greatest,  and  where  all  was  lost 
Bring  ruin,  and  make  woe  in  hell  ?     'Tis  fit, 
And  time,  methinks  some  monarch  should  ascend 
The  abdicated  throne,  which  he  perchance 
Leaves  to  his  recent  victor,  hitherward 
Pursuing  him,  with  unfamiliar  feet 
In  the  blind  access  hindered,  if  aright 
The  babbling  lips  of  oracle  have  told 
Of  such  a  one's  descent  to  these  abodes." 

He  paused,  checked  by  no  voice,  by  none  assured 
As  when  a  ship,  that  on  the  world's  great  sides 
Climbs  the  wave-ribbed  Pacific,  'gainst  the  weight 
Of  tempests  from  the  skiey  Andes  pressed 
Upon  the  barriered  continent  of  air, 
Kesistless  back,  and  leaning  on  the  sea, 
Is  hit  by  thunder,  and  intestine  fire 
Breaks  forth,  and  lights  the  inexorable  face 
Of  her  wild  doom ;  the  stark,  bewildered  crew 
Give  her  to  wind  and  sea,  and  as  she  swings, 


CHRIST     IN     HADES  .  31 

Helmless,  from  wave  to  wave,  with  crashing  spars, 
Sit  idle. — so  sat  these  who  manned  the  torn 
And  struggling  wreck  of  heaven,  in  this  abyss 
Storm-tossed  ;  so  startled,  yet  infirmly  sad 
With  such  surmises  as  could  make  gods  pale  : — 
When  Satan  reared  his  head,  on  which  no  crown 
Might  plainer  have  writ  king,  nor  horrent  plumes 
Shadowed  more  terror  :  His  iinmane  right  hand, 
Armed  with  a  gesture  of  supreme  command, 
Rose  with  deific  grace  to  herald  speech, 
Then,  from  changed  purpose  or  disdain  of  words, 
Convulsively  reached  forth,  and,  as  it  seemed, 
Grasped  at  the  shade  of  an  imagined  power 
To  wield  the  elemental  arms  that  hung 
Gleaming  and  tremulous  in  the  storm-lit  air ; 
And  muttered  thunder  bayed  the  ear  :  At  once 
A  thousand  hands  upon  the  broad  defence 
Tightened  their  grasp,  and  half  uprose  the  throng, 
Or  in  their  places  stirred  with  ringing  sound, 
Like  the  faint  threat  of  war  :  But  Baal,  prompt 
To  seize  the  imperial  moment  that  controls 
The  after  time,  though  not  without  some  sign 
Of  effort  in  his  mien,  wrenched  forth  these  words. 


32  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

"  Think  not,  twice-conquered,  from  thy  sovran  place 
To  awe  us  with  a  look,  who  see  crowned  Fate 
Frown  from  a  greater  height  on  thee  and  us — 
Thee  quelled — and  us,  who  far  above  all  fear 
Raised,  as  below  all  hope  dejected,  dare 
The  eternal  Tyrant :  the  malignant  star 
Of  thy  dominion  rose  before  our  eyes, 
Within  our  own  horizon  rose,  and  burned, 
And  fell  toward  the  darkness,  and,  like  thee, 
A  creature  of  the  finite  time — finds  here 
Its  temporal  limit  and  for  ever  sets. 
Thy  strength  we  know  is  great,  but  equals  not 
The  combined  strength  it  governs,  the  great  force 
And  title  of  so  many  worshipped  gods  ; 
Which,  if  it  be  that  might  is  proof  of  right, 
May  rightly  govern  thee,  and  henceforth  shall. 

No  answer  Heaven's  great  traverser  returned 
To  these  bold  taunts,  though  loud,  he  marked  them  not. 
Nor  heard  ;  as  showed  his  sinking  head  and  arm, 
And  all  his  gestureless  bowed  form,  collapsed, 
As  from  a  blow  by  an  invisible  hand. 
And  the  infernal  tribune  poured  amain 
His  turbulent  speech,  with  words  that  swept  like  storms 


CHRIST     IN     HADES.  33 

Across  the  souls,  celestial  still,  though  fallen, 

Of  those  high-thoughted  gloomy  deities  ; — 

Words  of  just  right  and  freedom,  tyranny 

And  usurpation,  lore  their  king  himself 

And  tyrant  taught  them,  when  of  old  it  served 

'Gainst  the  All-Ruler :  Nor  did  he  forget, 

But  with  the  music  of  some  sadness  now 

In  his  harsh  tones,  subdued,  and  smoothed,  to  speak 

Of  hoped  deliverance,  and  the  Babel-dreams 

With  which  high-building  fancy  whiled  their  pain, 

As  of  things  real,  merged  in  this  despair, 

And  whelmed  in  this  last  ruin  whose  full  wave 

Broke  high  above  them ;  and  with  wilful  grief, 

Over  their  drowned  magnificence  his  soul 

Still  wandered  and  lamented,  as  the  sea 

Wails  through  a  city  sunk  with  all  its  towers. 

Nor  spared  his  insolence  the  highest  names 
To  whom  heroic  deeds  had  given  praise 
Among  earth's  deities,  and  so  place  in  hell ; 
Or  those  for  fortitude  as  high  advanced 
By  its  great  regent ;  Cain  and  Nimrod  first, 
Alcides,  Theseus,  Orion,  blind 
Bellerophontes,  and  the  names,  long  since 


34  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

Dead  to  the  human  ear,  of  Anakim, 
Titan,  and  Demigod,  the  infant  words 
Of  fame,  forgotten  in  her  age,  but  here 
Retained,  and  honored  as  became  the  great 
And  first-born  offspring  of  the  virgin  earth, 
The  giant  nurslings  of  her  mighty  youth. 

"  Easy  for  you,"  he  said,  with  voice  and  look 
As  when  the  aerial  storm-maned  lion  roars 
Against  the  earth,  and  glares  upon  the  doomed, — 
"  Easy  for  you  to  king  and  lord  it  here, 
High-seated  'mid  the  tyrannies  of  hell, 
Who  know  no  greater  state,  nor  ever  felt 
Contrast  of  hell  and  heaven,  nor  proved  his  might 
Whose  lightning  strikes  high  tops,  but  such  as  ye 
Leaves  safe  in  weakness,  fable  what  they  may 
Of  wars  on  Jove.     No  dizzy  height  ye  fell, 
From  climbed  Olympus  or  towered  Babel  hurled, 
Here  in  these  depths  to  find  far  higher  place 
Than,  though  presumptuous,  your  low  thoughts  aspired 
Above  the  cloud-spread  air ;  whose  blackness  scared, 
And  casual  fire — not  frighted  Jove — deterred 
Wingless  invaders,  heavenward,  step  by  step, 
Ascending ;  know,  proud  reptiles,  mated  ill 


CHRIST     IN     HADES.  35 

With  children  of  the  air,  that  from  this  hour 
We  recognize  no  monarch  but  our  fate, — 
No  peers  but  are  our  equals,  thus  at  first 
Created,  or  approved  by  might."     He  ceased, 
And  his  defiant  foot  and  planted  spear 
Brought  up  an  echo  from  the  heart  of  hell. 

Astarte,  then,  whose  anger,  scarce  restrained 
To  hear  these  words  from  her  Sidonian  mate, 
Burned  like  the  glow  of  fire  through  binding  smoke, 
Blazed  upward  suddenly,  and  all  her  moons 
And  deep  tiaras  of  stars  flashed  rosy  ire, 
Virgin  disdain  tempered  with  grief  divine. 
Like  her  own  planet  rising  in  the  east, 
So  large  and  fair  the  beauteous  giant  stood, 
To  them  who  gazed,  more  lovely  for  her  wrath. 
To  none  was  she  unknown,  to  angels  there 
A  woman-angel,  from  her  faith  seduced 
By  bright  Abaddon,  and  to  them  of  earth 
Regent  of  mooned  skies  ;  but  in  the  west(8) 
The  elect  infernal  queen,  to  whom  far-strayed 
In  Nysa's  flowery  field,  from  out  the  earth, 
Naked  and  grisly,  came  the  king  of  night, 
And  shamed  the  modest  day  of  her  fair  eyes, 


36  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

And  chased  the  clear  Aurora  from  her  cheeks, 
Displaced  with  evening  red,  and  dewy  tears. 
And  thus  she  spake,  with  voice  as  when  at  night 
One  hears  afar  the  instant  birth  of  sound 
In  brazen  tubes  melodious,  mixed  with  touch 
Of  stringed  sympathies,  that  with  their  tide 
Of  human  feeling  fill  the  hollow  air. 
Up  to  the  dreaming  moon,  that  stoops  to  hear. 

"  More  than  defeat,  oh  worse  than  this  despair  ! 
Oh  shame,  twice  shamed  with  worse  defeat,  that  thou, 
An  ancient  god,  his  fated  feodary, 
Who  knew  him  in  his  greatness,  when  we  all 
Could  not  perceive  in  what  he  seemed,  who  took 
The  star-bright  name  of  Lucifer,  less  great 
Than  stern  Jehovah,  or  in  what  his  state 
Shone  less  magnificent, — that  one  who  sat 
High-throned  beneath  his  feet,  supremely  placed, 
And  him  adored,  his  creature,  he  thy  God, 
His  pliant  hand,  his  foot,  his  smile,  his  frown, 
His  friend,  and  favorite,  till  ruin  came 
Like  night  upon  his  radiance,  and  he  fell — 
A  falling  sun  that  after  him  drew  down, 
What  could  he  less  ?  his  firmament  of  stars, 


CHRIST     IN      HADES.  37 

And  left  mid-heaven  dark  an  equal  space, 

Here  in  this  cavern  with  his  troubled  light 

To  glorify  perdition  ;  oh  worse  fall, 

And  death  to  our  divinity  ! — that  they 

Should  faithful  stand  who  only  know  him  fallen, 

And  thou  shouldst  be  the  first,  while  thus  he  sits, 

His  soul  striving  its  death,  to  launch  these  shafts, 

Making  the  wounds  trenched  by  the  bolts  of  Heaven 

The  mark  of  thy  more  dire  though  feeble  aim. 

What  did  I  hear  thee  urge,  deedless  declaimer, 

Against  his  faith  and  conduct,  from  the  hopes 

Fallen  in  his  defeat  ?     Who  gave  us  hope 

Whereon  to  build  these  hopes  that  we  lament  ? 

Who  gave  us  from  this  den  unhoped  reprieve  ? 

Gave  yonder  flowery  world  and  sapphire  sky 

In  the  celestial  ether,  and,  to  soothe 

This  pain,  gifts,  incense,  ritual  dance  and  song, 

With  clashing  cymbals  jubilant,  awed  looks 

And  smiles  and  supplicating  tears  ?     Who  raised 

Our  prostrate  deity,  in  this  abyss 

Half-buried  in  its  ruins,  where  it  lay 

Spurned  by  the  brute  and  unintelligent 

Wild  powers  of  nature,  storm,  and  flaming  fire, 


38  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

And  loud,  insulting  thunder, — its  whole  force, 
And  almost  life,  extinguished,  and  its  light 
Nigh  trodden  out  by  darkness, — who  restored, 
Reared,  and  enthroned  it  on  the  heart  of  man  ? 
And  thou,  who  gave  thee  thy  high-altared  hills 
And  woody  temples  ?  whose  pale  rites  my  soul 
Not  more  abhorred,  above  the  cedarn  tops 
Of  Syria  gliding  nightly,  than  to  hear 
These  blasphemies  that  more  pollute  thy  lips. 
And  what  though  from  green  fields  and  azure  air, 
In  that  fair  heaven  of  our  exile,  sent ; 
Thou  for  thy  vulturous  thirst  indeed  long  since, 
And  we  by  this  defeat  ?     What  can  be  said 
But  that  our  enemy,  and  his,  is  God, 
The  eternal  elder  of  all  spirits,  sire 
Of  all  control  and  power,  over  all 
High  head  omnipotent  5  with  whom  he  now 
Strives  inwardly,  and  not  with  such  as  thou, 
Nor  thy  reproaches  feels,  nor  hears  these  words 
I  speak  in  his  defence,  who  little  thought 
He  ever  would  need  word  from  any  tongue  !" 

Thus  spake  the  queen  of  night,  nor  deigned  to  know 
If  well  or  ill  regarded  were  her  words  ; 


CHRIST     IN     HADES.  39 

But  as  when  Judah's  daughters  mourned  defeat 

And  desolation  from  the  foe,  she  shook 

The  cloud  of  her  dark  tresses  to  her  feet, 

And  sat  beneath  them,  like  a  veil ;  dark,  vast, 

And  stone-like  motionless,  like  the  great  shape 

Of  their  despair  and  grief  before  them  set, 

By  the  wan  star  above  her  stooping  head 

Silvered  with  light.     Then  high-placed  Cain  stood  up, 

A  king  in  semblance,  but  whose  head  superb, 

Gray  with  the  downfall  of  afflicting  years, 

Suborned  no  greatness  of  its  golden  tire ; 

Nor  among  kings  less  than  the  first  might  seem, 

Nor  less  than  equal  among  angels  stood 

Hell's  human  premier,  pale  and  sternly  fair, 

Of  arch-angelic  stature,  like  a  god. 

For  spirit  freed  from  bodily  restraint, 

Forced  circumscription,  if  in  essence  great, 

Of  its  true  greatness  then  puts  on  the  form ; 

If  feeble  and  irresolute,  though  of  bulk 

Typhoean,  adequate  shape  assumes, 

Lopped  of  its  huge  proportions :  And  thus  spake 

The  Homicide,  whose  hand  first  gave  to  death 

The  taste  of  blood ;  the  lion  of  that  pit 


40  CHRIST     IN     HADES* 

Where  fallen  he  lay,  unhumbled  fierce  and  loud, 
The  first  and  eldest  of  his  race  in  hell. 
And  by  its  older  spirits,  though  heaven-bom. 
Feared  for  a  youth  accursed  above  their  age. 

"  Princes,  since  I,  it  seems,  must  prove  my  right 
To  call  you  peers,  I  stand  not  here  to  speak 
In  his  defence  who  needs  none,  and  whose  soul 
Would  deem  such  words  dishonor,  did  he  hear. 
But  this  I  say,  that  of  necessity 
Ye  fell  with  him,  who  fell ;  his  satellites  ; 
Who,  had  ye  then  been  left,  as  now  ye  would. 
In  that  metropolis  of  all  worlds,  (by  me 
Unseen  and  undesired,)  without  your  head, 
Had  fallen  to  ruins,  and  been  darker  left 
In  heaven,  deprived  his  light,  than  in  deep  hell. 
Fatal  dependency,  and  if  unjust, 
Let  Fate  be  blamed,  not  him  :  But  I,  who  stood 
Probationary  heir  to  those  bright  seats 
Whence  ye  were  hurled,  I,  of  free  will,  joined  cause 
With  you  against  your  tyrant,  and  alone 
Among  you  came,  not  with  these  scoflings  hailed, 
The  first  ally  of  your  new  founded  state ; 
Nor  heard  their  omen  in  the  infinite  cry 


CHRIST     IN     HADES.  41 

That  killed  the  silence  when  your  monarch  gave 
To  this  red  hand,  with  that  permissive  shout, 
Hell's  second  sceptre,  as  by  natural  right 
King  of  the  new-confederated  race." 

Thus  far,  he  spake  with  low  but  rising  sound, 
As  when,  uprousing  in  his  shadowy  lair, 
The  storm-hound  of  the  north  begins  to  bay, — 
Thenceforth, — as  when  into  the  sky  he  pours 
From  his  distended  breast  prolonged  stern  tones, 
And,  leaping  forth,  breaks  through  the  crashing  pines 
With  one  wide  roar,  that  swallows  up  the  air. 

"  Baal,  thy  airy  vaunt  of  ancient  state, 
That  overtops  our  new-raised  deity, 
Must  be  perforce  the  scorn  of  him  who  deems 
Lost  honors  a  disgrace,  and  sees  not  yet 
What  glory  comes  of  station  forfeited, 
And  while  retained,  ingloriously  held 
By  sufferance,  not  by  might :  Not  to  be  great, 
Hear  it  ye  pining  factions  twice  the  slaves 
Of  Him  ye  hate,  slaves  of  his  power — and  pride, 
And  Thou,  great  egotist  of  heaven,  pleased 
With  fair-shaped  breath  of  muses  that  accord 
Praise  to  demands  for  praise — not  to  be  great 


42  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

I  deem  it,  in  the  summits  cf  the  world 

To  sit  with  worshippers  in  loud-hymned  state. 

Pomp  blazing  back  on  pomp,  and  voice  to  voice, 

In  swelled  antiphony  and  chorus  bland, 

Returning  echo  up  the  wearied  air : 

Nor  is  it  from  an  armed  hand  of  cloud 

To  cast  the  thunder-darkness  that  dismays 

Affronting  men,  nor  to  their  dreadful  aim 

To  guide  the  whirlwinds  that  upkindle  here 

These  black  and  smoke-enveloped  lakes  to  flame  : 

This  to  be  strong  and  greatly  cruel — that 

Is  to  be  weakly  glorious  ; — to  be  great, 

Lies  in  the  soul  that  on  itself  retires 

For  strength  ;  this,  serviles  !  I  deem  great, 

Not  to  possess,  but  to  contend  with  force ; 

By  strength  of  will  to  dispossess  our  Hate 

Of  his  chance  sovereignty,  who,  spite  his  boast, 

Is  not  almighty  while  the  will  defies, 

And  heart  dethrones  him.     Be  it  yours  to  wage, 

Who  know  no  victory  but  success  in  arms 

Or  treachery,  base  quarrel  with  your  chief: 

I  will  assume  the  war  ;  this  arm  shall  lead 

The  earth's  divinities,  when  Fate  permits, 


CHRIST     IN     HADES.  43 

'Gainst  your  victorious  kindred  of  the  air, 
By  you  more  dreaded  than  ere  you  by  men  ; — 
But  first,  untimely  scoffer,  mean  to  prove 
That  other  stroke  than  Michael's  can  smite  down 
Thy  vain  pretensions,  who,  with  all  thy  host, 
In  second  rout,  hurled  down  these  yawning  gulfs 
May  find  a  greater  depth  than  hell  from  heaven." 

He  ceased,  and  with  a  sound  as  of  the  sea, 
"When  some  fierce  wind  that  in  the  tropic  sky 
Hung  black  and  dreadful,  from  its  continent  loosed, 
Roars  down  upon  the  flood,  the  throng  uprose  ; 
And  sea-like  swayed  unto  its  outmost  verge 
His  audience,  as  the  stormy  impulse  rolled 
Onward,  beyond  his  ken,  its  helmed  waves, 
Up  thundering  far  and  wide,  with  crash  of  arms, 
And  spray  of  flashing,  spears,  and  plumy  foam. 
And  far  beyond  his  voice,  as,  where  the  wind 
As  yet  fills  not  the  air,  wave  urges  wave — 
Thousands  on  thousands  rose  in  glimmering  ranks. 
Apparent  through  the  gloom  :  At  once,  the  broad 
And  rival  standards  of  the  earth  and  heaven, 
This  azure  and  that  emerald,  unfurled, 
And  opening,  shadowed  battle  on  the  air, 


44  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

Filled  with  armorial  horrors,  as  beneath 
Stood  the  deep  space  replete  with  armed  shape ; 
Then,  soon,  diverse,  like  clouds  athwart  the  sky 
Diversely  driven,  moved  to  form  the  war : 
Whose  dawn  in  their  display  the  hosts  beheld. 
And,  as  when  swift  Achilles  cleft  the  power 
Of  Ilion  betwixt  Xanthus  and  the  gate, 
They  parted ;  these  with  Baal  to  the  south, 
Those  north  with  Cain  :  But  Satan  where  he  sat 
Like  a  huge  tower  half  sunk  upon  its  height. 
Rose  not,  nor  stirred,  and  starred  Astarte  there 
Sat  motionless  before  him  in  her  light. 


BOOK   II. 


BOOK  II. 

IN  the  same  world,  of  demons  and  damned  men 

The  endless-fixed  abode,  the  same  deep  world 

Of  pale,  unbreathing  realms,  but  in  a  clime 

Where  horror  became  awe,  and  darkness  shade. 

Lay  Paradise  ; l  divided  from  the  dark 

And  punished  region  by  a  gulf,  so  wide 

That  scarce  a  level  arrow,  launched  across 

By  stronger  than  a  mortal  archer's  arm, 

"Would  plumb  the  centre  ;  and  so  deep,  the  thought, 

Though  swift  and  patient,  that  should  track  its  flight, 

Must  deem  the  abysm's  bed  had  stayed  at  last 

The  fast  descending  arrow — falling  still. 

And  here,  as  on  the  gulfs  Tartarean  shore, 

Of  wild  and  abrupt  aspect  was  the  soil, 


48  CHRIS  TIN      HADES. 

Shaped  by  creation's  storm,  and  unadorned 

By  the  six  artist  days  of  after  calm  ; 

But  full  of  wilful  grandeur,  and  rich  gleams 

In  rocks  of  carbuncle  and  all  ores,  and  like 

The  floor  of  heaven  in  rough  gold  unwrought, 

And  idle  wealth  ;  and  for  a  living  realm, 

In  this  bright  desert  set,  as  in  the  sun, 

And  like  a  dim  and  vast  oasis,  stood 

The  Paradise  of  God  ;  of  earthly  saints. 

Born  ere  their  Saviour, — till  that  Saviour's  arm 

Should  break  its  shadowy  door  and  make  them  free,- 

The  sad  Elysium.2     Still  the  place  as  sleep, 

And  as  dreams — beautiful ;  along  the  plains, 

Swept  by  no  wind  and  withered  by  no  star, 

With  fixed,  wan  shadow,  stirless  aspens  stood, 

Dark  myrtles,  and  gaunt  poplars  still  and  pale, 

With  cypress  mixed  :  and  many  a  frowning  brow 

And  melancholy  look  in  crag  and  steep, 

Was  smoothed  by  climbing  vines  and  flowery  weeds 

That  built  themselves  on  high,  with  all  their  gay 

Thick-tangled  blooms,  and  on  the  barren  rock 

Hung  odors  ;  soft  and  subtle  next  to  heaven 

The  clime,  and,  fit  for  spiritual  breathing,  pure  : 


CHRIST      J  N      HADES.  49 

Nor  did  it  want  some  glimmerings  like  day, 

But  oh  !  how  different  from  the  dewy  clear 

Of  open  heaven  ;  nor  could  it  want,  if  fair, 

The  mirror,  that  by  hand-clasped  mountains  raised, 

Or  set  in  emerald  vales,  earth's  sceneries  hold 

To  their  own  beauties  ;  from  the  hills  around, 

Browed  with  black  firs  and  cedars,  with  thick  boughs, 

That  mingled  with  the  darkness  cast  from  peaks 

O'er  peaks  uprising  in  the  skyless  air, 

A  thousand  sinuous  or  precipitous  streams 

Lapsed  with  dim-heard  decadence,  and  from  sight 

Fled,  in  devouring  clefts,  or  slept  in  pools, 

That  deep  within  their  bosom,  held  a  dream 

Of  rocks  and  falling  streams  and  prospects  still. 

Nor  did  the  place  adornment  lack  from  art 
Of  towers  and  temples,  that  a  rugged  clime, 
Of  hilly  aspects,  best  befits  for  show. 
For  the  pale  meditative  shades  that  here 
Waited  release  to  heaven,  had  not  forgot 
The  beautifying  skill  of  men,  nor  lost 
The  nature  that  impels  them  to  indue 
The  nobler  moods  and  unessential  forms 
Of  spirit  with  material  ornament 


tr  0  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

And  visible  being, — giving  thus  to  sense, 

And  so  by  sensuous  reflection  to  itself, 

The  pure  immortal  part.     And  hence  as  where 

A  stranger,  in  the  opening  flower  of  day, 

Approaching  far  .ZEgina  on  the  sea, 

Or  Corinth  o'er  the  isthmus,  sees  in  air 

The  snowy  edifice  of  temples  old, 

That  sleep  upon  the  hills,  like  clouds  of  Jove, 

And  paint  the  fronted  sky,  but  which  the  sun 

Dispels  not,  to  his  wonder, — here  the  hills 

At  every  spot  of  vantage,  bore  on  high 

Fanes  with  white  statues  set  in  shining  frieze 

And  spacious  pediment :  such  shapes  as  seemed, — 

So  airy  light  they  stood,  or  large  reclined, — 

As  they  had  down  descended  on  the  vast 

Columnar  pedestal,  rising  from  beneath 

To  meet  and  give  fit  resting-place  to  gods : 

And,  though  but  human,  not  less  grand  the  groups 

That  all  the  famed  heroic  story  told 

Of  Jephtha  and  of  Sampson,  regal  Saul, 

And  David,  sweeter  Orpheus  than  harped 

At  hell's  deep  portals,  with  prolonged,  wild  sound, 

Down  the  abysses  wailing  on  the  ear 


CHRIST     IN     HADES.  51 

Of  the  infernal  Fate  ;  but  this,  inspired, 
Sang  at  the  gates  of  heaven,  and  his  strain 
Bade  the  eternal  doors  of  glory  move. 

Upon  a  height  by  that  dividing  gulf 
Once  measured  by  the  eye  of  Dives,  fixed 
On  the  cool  extreme, — to  the  abhorred  abyss 
More  near  than  the  blest  people  used  to  roam, 
Sat  Adam,  doomed,  sad  penance  self-imposed, 
His  offspring  to  behold,  who  fell  from  earth, 
Struck  with  mortality  for  his  sake,  like  leaves 
Cut  by  the  noiseless  frost  from  some  full  tree, 
In  yellow  autumn.     None  escaped  his  sight, 
Of  them,  who  from  the  region  of  the  day 
Alighting,  brightened  the  Elysian  peaks, 
Or  those,  more  numerous,  who,  along  the  brink 
That  shored  eternal  night,  discerned,  afar, 
Like  dusky  shadows  driven  athwart  the  clear. 
Into  the  darkness  fell,  unnoised  how  deep. 

This  without  grief  his  nature  might  not  bear. 
Though  nerved  to  patience  by  the  strength  sublime 
Which  he  who  views  his  crime  with  steadfast  eye, 
Finds  in  the  stern  regard.     What  could  he  seem, 
Although  but  shade  by  grief  more  dimmed  with  shade, 


52  CHRIST     IN      HADES. 

But  sire  and  head  of  an  immortal  line  ? 

And  now  there  was  a  splendor  in  his  look, 

And  conscious  strength  in  his  large-limbed  repose, 

As  in  a  man  whom  destiny  inspires 

To  assume  in  soul  the  greatness  which  her  hands 

Invisibly  prepare  ;  or  as  they  feign 

Of  the  swart  Brahmin,  who  beneath  the  sun 

Sits  without  time  or  change,  till  death  thinks  scorn 

To  touch  his  withered  life, — his  penance  done, 

His  eyes  grow  terrible  with  light,  his  limbs 

Put  on  their  youth,  and  his  impatient  feet 

Already  feel  the  steps  of  Indra's  throne. 

Eve  on  his  right  hand  sat,  with  head  declined, 

From  recollected  shame,  or  weaker  mind 

Than  to  endure,  with  Adam,  sight  more  sad 

Than  haunts  the  wide  and  ever  frighted  eyes 

Of  Niobe,  for  tears  compassioned  into  stone  ; 

And  opposite  reclined  his  second  born. 

First  wept,  and  Moses  at  his  feet,  with  fixed 

Unalterable  brow  and  eye  severe  ; 

And  in  his  hands  the  tables  of  the  law. 

These  solitary  sat,  and  lower  stood 

Grray  seers,  and  warriors,  in  old  times  revered. 


CHRIST     IN      II  A  D  E  ri  53 

For  here  came  not  the  general  crowd,  though  free, 

Familiarly,  nor  lightly  dared  obtrude, 

Nor  but  with  awe  approach  the  unborn  man. 

But  now  intenser  awe  pervaded  all, 
For  Adam's  voice  upon  their  wonder  fell, 
With  shadowy,  but  so  vast  and  solemn  sound, 
That  silence  not  displaced  but  deeper  seemed 
In  the  deep  listening  of  the  dead  around — 
As  thus  the  Sire  to  Abel — "  Whence,  oh  son, 
Was  that  sad  look,  the  unforgotten  sight 
Of  death,  in  thee  first  given  to  my  eyes, 
Again  upon  thy  face,  and  in  thy  limbs, 
But  chased  by  smiles  more  bright  than  that  was  dark, 
And  such  a  glory  in  thine  eyes  and  brow 
That  scarce  I  knew  thee  ?     So  on  earth  the  sun, 
When  first  I  saw  him  darkened  by  a  cloud, 
And  thought  him  gone  for  ever, — like  some  grand, 
High  fronted,  glorious  angel  sometimes  seen 
In-looking  on  our  bower,  then  seen  no  more. — 
Bursting  again  imprisoning  cold  or  dark, 
Rolled  from  his  vapory  cave,  like  noon  on  night/' 

"  Adam  and  Sire,"  the  favorite  replied, 
"  Unconsciously  thy  speech  has  touched  the  cause  : 

OF  THR 


I;     w    Av    •     V      mm  * 


54  CHRIST      IN      HA  DBS 

For  to  iny  eyes  racthouglit  the  sun  appeared, 
As  often  to  rny  thoughts,  a  golden  round, 
That  turned  too  soon  its  darker  side  to  earth ; 
Or  by  the  intervention  of  a  shade 
Stood  ruined  of  its  splendor  :  as  it  seemed 
To  my  last-looking  glance  when  sudden  death 
Fell  on  these  darkened  eyes,  and  like  a  blow 
Bore  me  to  earth,  unstayed  by  foot  or  hand. 
Nay,  Adam,  thou  and  Eve, — why  does  that  look 
Still  haunt  your  downcast  eyes  at  words  like  these , 
As  if  I  only  of  my  kind  had  died  ? 
And  soon  a  flight  of  angels  I  descried, 
Together  driving,  in  that  dim  eclipse, 
From  the  four  sides  of  heaven,  so  thick  as  yet 
Came  never,  in  an  orb  of  cloudy  wings, 
Hitherward  wafting  the  insphered  souls  of  saints. 
And  that  way  looking  whither  they  all  held 
Their  mid-air  voyage,  I  perceived  at  length 
Why  utmost  heaven,  through  its  golden  ports, 
Emptied  itself  of  glory,  and  its  state 
Dissolved  ;  while  powers  pre-eminent,  confused 
With  meaner  angels,  filled  the  inferior  sphere. 
For  Him,  oh  Adani !  who  on  earth  oft  came 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  55 

As  from  no  higher  power,  and  spake  mild  words 

But  awful,  which  we  spake  not  and  yet  knew ; — 

Him  I  beheld,  uplifted  in  the  air, 

Upon  a  bleeding  tree  that  struck  no  root 

Into  the  earth,  but  by  the  evil  hands 

Seemed  fixed,  which  on  a  branch  transverse  had  stretched 

Him  bound  and  naked,  who  still  seemed,  though  worn, 

By  mortal-haunting  sorrow  and  great  pain, 

To  the  gaunt  spectacle  and  hue  of  death, 

The  same  we  called  Jehovah,  and  no  less — 

To  me  a  wonder — than  Almighty  God. 

And,  as  I  looked,  it  lifted  up  its  head 

And  cried,  so  loud  as  never  thou  and  Eve 

Made  lamentation  erst  in  Gihon's  vale, 

On  the  returning  day  of  sin  and  doom. 

And  darkness  fell  upon  me  with  the  sound, 

And  mortal  fear. — But  when  unclosed  my  eyes, 

To  utter  dark  near  wounded  by  that  sight, 

With  orb  restored,  the  like  affronted  sun 

Stood  large  and  glorious  ;  and  methought  I  knew 

Havilah's  cedarn  shade,  but  dreamy  dark 

It  fell  around ;  and  on  an  altar  near 

A  lamb  sent  up  its  snowy  wreath  to  heaven.1' 


50  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

Here  stood  awhile  the  stream  of  strange  discourse  : 
But  none  with  stir  or  speech  the  wonder  loosed, 
Mute  in  all  tongues  and  fixed  in  all  their  eyes  ; 
But  wider  browed,  intelligent,  and  intent 
Beyond  all  picture,  in  the  aspect  old 
Of  bards  and  prophets  and  the  mighty  shades 
Contemplative,  that  sat  before  the  mount, 
Themselves  like  hills  unmoved.     But  now  their  heads, 
Each  head  marked  regal  by  the  silver  crown 
Of  millenary  years,  great  Elders  leaned 
Involuntary  forward,  and  their  harps 
Touched  with  preludings  to  intended  song  ; 
As  when  a  breeze  breaks  from  its  crystal  cave 
In  the  all-tranquil  air,  and  at  deep  noon 
Sweeps  through  a  grove  on  momentary  wings. 

But  soon  the  silent  seer  from  revery  raised 
His  eyes,  re-lumined  with  the  vision's  close, 
Most  difficult  in  memory  for  thought 
To  unperplex  ;  where  wake  begins  with  sleep 
To  mingle  rays,  as  oft  the  sun  and  moon 
Shine  in  the  uncertain  dawn  :  and  thus  resumed. 

"  Then  in  the  sun  where,  beamless,  in  the  air 
With  sacrificial  vapor  filled,  it  stood. 


CHRIST     IN     IIADES.  57 

I  of  a  human  shape  became  aware, 
That  me  more  glorious  seemed  ;  my  bright 
Celestial  counterpart ;  that  nearer  came 
Until  the  sun  its  circle  wide  enlarged 
Around  us  both,  and  me  invested  fair. 
Within  its  rosy  atmosphere,  with  bloom 
And  splendor  like  the  other,  more  and  more 
Transfiguring  to  his  brightness  all  of  earth 
And  gloom  that  lingered  with  me,  till — too  near 
Or  bright — I  lost  the  image,  and  awaked 
Here  in  this  dusky  light  to  see  you  sit 
Familiar  as  before,  with  sunless  looks." 

Here  ceased,  but  not  in  silence  ended,  that 
Which  to  their  shadowy  senses  seemed  a  sound : 
As  when  one  instrument,  to  tell  its  tale 
Of  wondrous  motions  in  a  human  spirit, 
Sounds  in  an  orchestra,  and  all  the  throng, 
In  solemn  trance,  like  lively  sculpture  sit 
With  open  eyes,  and  mark  not  what  they  see, 
Or  through  its  unapparent  forms  look  out 
Into  the  world  from  which  these  sounds  are  sent — 
Or  with  closed  orbs,  but  sight  attentive  still 
And  subtly  present  in  the  hearing  sense, — 
3* 


58  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

Then,  like  immediate  thunder  heard,  at  once 
From  the  long  calm  of  all  the  powers  of  sound, 
That  slumbered  in  the  banded  tubes  of  brass, 
The  sea  of  music  breaks,  with  wave  on  wave, 
Rolled  high,  and  driven  by  the  storm  of  soul 
Forth  poured  in  human  breath ; — like  swimmers  they 
Amid  the  sounding  billows  sink  and  gasp ;  — 
So  on  the  voice  of  Abel  when  it  ceased, 
A  thousand  voices  burst  the  gates  of  song, 
And  on  a  thousand  and  ten  thousand  souls 
Of  the  redeemed,  through  all  that  region  deep, 
Poured  like  a  wind  upon  the  sea.     The  sound 
Even  to  the  Earth  went  up ;  from  voice  and  hand 
Rushed  mingled  song  and  strain,  like  fire  and  flame. 
And  heard  again  were  Israel's  solemn  strings 
And  Judah's  singers,  and  the  alien  harps 
That  on  the  willows  hung  by  Ulai's  banks, 
Voiceless  above  the  murmuring  stream.     And  Thou, 
Celestial  Light !  thy  praises  filled  the  ear, 
Abysmal,  of  immeasurable  night. 
Sun  of  all  stars,  star  of  all  heavens,  Thou 
Wast  by  their  song  adored — resplendent  Word, 
(;  Let  there  be  light !" — and  Thou,  creative  Hand, 


CHIilST     IN      HADES.  59 

That  on  its  flying  beams  the  image  laid 

Of  all  the  flaming  world  ;  tremendous  Power, 

That  gather'dst  in  thy  wide-exploring  grasp 

The  dark,  diffused  materials,  and  framed 

The  earth,  and  reared  it ;  by  thy  mystic  skill 

Untaught,  and  force  omnipotent,  it  rose 

From  gloomy  waste,  and  bore  the  mountains  up, 

And  hung  their  peaks  in  heaven  ; — Hand  of  might, 

Wisdom,  and  mastery,  that  pour'dst  the  sea 

Around  the  earth,  the  air  around  the  sea, 

And  light  round  all ;  that  weavedst  the  blue  sky 

Throughout  the  starry  space,  and  held'st  the  entire 

And  rounded  universe  like  an  ornament 

Before  the  infinite  Reason's  raptured  Eye — 

Thee  glorious  in  day  and  night  they  hymned, 

In  hell  and  heaven ;  but  Thou,  of  human  spirit 

And  reason  the  light,  redeemer  of  the  soul 

From  darkness  of  worse  night,  eternal  Word, 

Begot  without  beginning,  without  end 

Existing,  thee,  as  the  Messiah,  sung, 

As  Saviour  far  more  glorified.     And  break, 

Thus  rose  the  invocation  of  All  Saints, 

Break  wide,  bright  Word,  upon  these  sunless  realms, 


60  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

Prime  fiat  of  creation,  Word  of  power  ; 
Light  of  all  vision,  glory  of  the  light, 
Lightning  of  glory  !  and  on  us  whose  eyes 
Turn  ever  on  the  darkness  a  blind  prayer, 
On  us,  who,  sunk  below  the  living  world, 
See  not  earth,  ocean,  air,  nor  the  vast  wheel 
Of  heaven,  swift-turning  with  all-circling  flame — 
On  us,  thou,  milder  than  the  lunar  dawn  ! 
Thou,  brighter  than  the  towering  orb  of  day ! 
Sun  of  all  suns  and  worlds,  beyond  the  reach 
Of  night  and  earthly  shadows,  riding  high 
Above  all  heavens  in  eternal  noon, 
Descend — or  to  our  eyes  transmit  thy  beam. 

Scarce  yet  the  strain  could  from  its  echoes  deep, 
With  fourfold  repetition  from  all  sides 
Of  the  wide  subterranean  cavern  beat 
In  higher  concord  implicate,  be  told, 
When  from  above  they  heard  a  louder  strain 
Responsive  ;  and  immediate  light  afar, 
As  from  the  disk  of  an  appearing  sun 
In  their  dark  sphere,  shone  o'er  them,  and  in  gold 
Clad  all  that  stood  thereunder,  gloriously 
Revealing  the  assembly  on  the  mount. 


CHRIST     IN      HADES.  61 

The  splendor  on  their  upturned  faces  fell. 
And  shone  in  each,  as  when  the  morning  beams. 
From  the  high  east,  number  the  ocean  sands. 
Yet  blinded  not,  so  clear  and  soft  it  fell, 
And  like  a  cloud  of  light,  athwart  the  deep 
And  painful  gloom  :  And  distant,  in  the  midst, 
Girt  by  an  orb  of  seraphs — on  the  immense 
Circumference  hovering,  each  with  pinions  twain 
Erect,  twain  prone,  and  twain  that  clasped  the  air, 
And  spreading  sunny  locks  o'er-streamed  with  gold 
From  open  heaven — stood  a  shape  like  man, 
With  bleeding  hands  and  feet,  but  joyful  mien  ; 
Wan,  but  with  recent  triumph  in  his  look, 
And  calm,  as  one  with  victory  not  elate  :8 
And  through  the  central  glory  drawn  transverse, 
As  if  upon  his  shoulders  borne  whose  death 
Redeemed  its  shame,  behold  the  accursed  beam, 
Intelligible  to  their  wonder  through  the  dream 
Of  Abel,  soon  confirmed.     Not  swift  the  sphere 
Descended  ;  like  a  hovering  cloud  it  came, 
Toward  them  compelled,  as  if  descent,  opposed 
To  its  unprompted  motion,  and  against 
The  upbuoyant  strains  from  all  sides  blown  beneath 


62  CHRIST     IN      HADES. 

By  trumping  angels,  were  more  difficult 
Than,  from  the  instant  impulse,  to  obey 
The  stress  of  harmony,  and  mount  to  heaven. 

At  length  it  rested,  like  a  radiant  crown, 
On  that  sole  awful  peak,  where  sat  apart 
The  Sire  of  men  ;  who  to  their  Saviour  rose, 
And  for  a  space  the  First  and  Second  Man 
Confronted  stood,  each  father,  and  each  son  ; 
The  heavenly  Father  and  his  earthly  Son, 
The  earthly  Father  and  his  Seed  divine  ; 
And  Moses  rose,  his  head  unantlered  now 
Of  the  bright  beams  that  made  it  dreadful,  quenched 
Before  their  brighter  far  j  and  from  his  hands, 
Not  passionate  as  once,  with  solemn  act, 
Cast  down  and  brake  the  tables  at  his  feet. 
Then  patriarch  and  prophet  bowed  at  once, 
Nor  thought  it  shame  that  their  large  fronts  sublime 
Should  touch  the  ground ;  and  Abel  bowed,  and  Eve 
Clasping  his  feet,  and  all  the  multitude 
Toward  the  transfigured  mountain  where  he  stood, 
As  on  that  Galilean  hill  beheld 
In  raiment  clear,  (yet  rather,  on  this  peak, 
He  glorified  Calvary  and  the  tree  of  shame,) 


CHRIST     IN      HADES.  63 

Throughout  the  utmost  region,  bowed  the  head. 
Bending  one  way  like  plants  before  the  wind. 

And  oh  !  hereafter,  thou  whom  this  dark  strain 
Scarce  dares  to  mention,  for  the  deeper  awe 
That  sinks  its  numbers,  may  my  soul  indeed 
Join  in  that  worship  that  it  renders  now 
With  visionary  effort,  or,  more  blest, 
With  tears,  behold  thee,  though  afar,  in  heaven. 


BOOK    III. 


BOOK    III. 

BACK  iiito  Tartarus  from  that  bright  peak 
Resting  celestial  feet,  and  made  the  immense 
High  pedestal  of  a  god  indeed,  my  muse 
Compels  the  wing  ;  intent  to  sing,  and  me, 
Her  earnest  listener,  teach  the  fiery  war 
Of  those  intractable  despairing  spirits, 
Demoniac  and  human,  blown  into  a  heat 
And  sevenfold  rage  of  fire,  that  made  the  hell 
Which  outward  burned  and  flamed  against  the  shore 
Of  their  assaulted  being,  a  septentrion  sea 
O'er-glassed  with  cold  in  winter's  dark  extreme. 
Now  like  as  day,  struck  with  the  mortal  dint 
Of  cold  and  gloom,  when  rises  from  the  earth 
Black  night,  floods  out  his  glorious  life,  and  stains 
With  flaming  or  and  gules  the  argent  field 


C8  C  II  R  I  S  T      I  N      II  A  D  E  S  . 

Wherein,  upon  his  sinking  orb,  he  leans 

In  haggard  splendor,  and,  athwart  the  world. 

Throws  back  his  mighty  image  on  the  east, 

And  makes  it  seem  two  suns  or  set  or  rise, — 

So  with  a  sicklied  glory  from  the  blaze 

Of  martial  pomp  the  region  shone, — appeared 

Like  these  the  hosts  opposed,  as  far  apart, 

In  radiant  gold  and  brass  and  pallid  steel, 

Glimmering  athwart  the  intervening  gloom 

In  either  side  of  hell ;  but  not  like  these 

They  faded,  leaving  night :  in  order  set 

For  battle,  and  in  thought  prepared  as  erst 

In  will,  at  once  with  caution  armed  and  rage, 

Their  mutual  motions  and  swift  steps  o'ercame 

The  interval  of  darkness  deep  with  space, 

Till  now  into  each  other's  gleam  they  fell, 

Contiguous  ;  though  from  each  other  still 

So  far  remote  in  space  as  from  the  east 

To  the  west  cape,  that  shut  the  Atlantic  gulf; 

Then  swifter  rushed  to  meet,  and  swift,  behind, 

Wide-following  darkness  like  a  storm  came  down. 

And  high  above  them,  in  the  air  disturbed 

By  moving  armaments,  grim  lightnings  broke 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  69 

In  wavering  lines,  and  seamed  the  opaque  far  dark 
"With  rivers  of  fire,  and  hairy  meteors  streamed 
Along  the  immense,  or  in  the  skylcss  height 
Wheeled,  and  around  them  with  swift  motion  wrapped 
Vast  lengths  of  sounding  flame  ;  or  bursting  shone 
Like  shattered  suns,  and  either  army  dazed 
And  far-illumined  ;  nor  beneath  their  feet 
Less  glowed  the  iron  path,  and  frequent  flamed 
The  smouldering  base  under  their  dread  advance. 

So  many  warrior-shapes  then  moved  beneath 
As  never  on  the  surface  roused  at  peal 
Of  clarion,  or  in  cadence  beat  the  ground 
To  the  loud  hand  of  war  upon  the  drum, 
Or  pale  lips  pressed  upon  the  thrilling  reed, 
When  moving  nations  armed  flashed  back  the  sun : 
Nor  had  it  been  a  field  so  full,  or  vast, 
Though  of  all  fields  and  battles  were  made  one, 
So  thick  the  clime-bronzed  race  of  demons  swarmed, 
So  numerous  the  fairer  flock  of  men  ; 
The  field  so  spacious  that  they  trod,  who  not 
For  burning  sea,  or  torrent  rolling  fire 
Under  its  cloud-white  veil,  or  vacuous  gulf, 
Or  marsh  of  pale-spread  flames,  made  turn  or  stay. 


70  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

So  on  they  came,  revealing  and  revealed, 
And  imminent  with  light,  in  what  it  showed, 
More  dreadful  than  the  deep  accustomed  gloom 
That  partially  concealed  them  each  from  each. 
Nor  were  they  undismayed,  but  high-enraged 
Above  a  doubt  of  the  event,  they  strode 
With  uiidiminished  steps  the  lessening  space  : 
Black  and  precipitous  battle  on  each  brow 
Hung  threatening  ;  and  each  eye  with  victory  blazed, 
And  saw  the  foe  already  by  their  feet 
Down-trodden.     First,  and  far-seen,  Baal  loomed, 
Swift-nearing,  like  the  highest  peak  of  lands 
Half  hid  in  mists,  that  moving  seems  to  one 
Whirled  by  it  on  the  sea  at  morning-tide. 
Asmod  the  right,  and  Ammon  led  the  left, 
The  orient  Jove  though  this  usurped  the  name, 
Nor  less  that  Grecian  god.     To  these  opposed, 
Towered  adamantine  Cain,  both  doomed  and  writ 
Unconquered  in  his  brow  sedate  and  stern  ; 
Naked  as  erst  on  earth,  and  yet  than  none 
Less  terrible,  and  armed  with  that  dire  plant, 
Torn  by  the  gnarled  roots,  whose  stroke  accursed 
First  burst  the  gates  of  war.     Upon  his  right 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  71 

Athenian  Theseus  marched,  nor  other  seemed 
Than  when  at  Marathon  his  mighty  shade 
Paced  giant-like  before  the  patriot  Greek  s 
Awe-thrilled  and  joyful,  and  his  armed  foot 
Broke  through  the  Asian  line.     In  look  like  Cain, 
Alcides  stalked  upon  the  foremost  left, 
Thus  naked  and  without  armor,  better  armed 
With  strength  and  courage  ;  the  Nemean's  hide 
Thrown  idly  backward,  showed  his  queller's  hand 
Laid  on  its  knotty  engine,  with  a  mien 
Lightly  secure.     On  each  part  they  appeared 
As  once  in  earth  they  did  or  ether  ;  these 
Like  themselves, — those  like  the  hero-gods, 
They  were  or  imitated  there  ;  but  all, 
Although  in  look  still  human  and  distinct, 
Of  spiritual  stature,  and  with  arms 
Proportioned  ;  like  hill-crowning  cedars  waved 
Their  plumy  helms,  and,  at  each  forward  step, 
Shook  nodding  ruin  down  and  dark  defeat. 
The  other  side,  supreme,  as  they  who  feel 
Superior  worth  innate,  or  time-faced  right, 
Meet  rebels,  with  superb  presumption  came, 
And  port  omnipotent ;  by  which  dismayed 


72  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

And  awe-struck  as  it  seemed,  the  adverse  front, 
When  now  so  near  the  tread  of  each  to  each 
Like  echoes  came,  made  halt,  and  through  their  lines, 
Suddenly  retrograde,  disorder  fell. 

Then  Baal,  prompt  to  scoff,  made  hoarse  the  air 
With  triumphings  like  these  :  "  Warriors  in  peace, 
Peaceful  in  war  !  not  overweeningly  ye  scorn 
I  see,  and  see  in  time  for  peace,  wise  thoughts 
To  entertain,  though  late  ;  better  resolved, 
Doubt  not.  ye  mockeries  of  our  state,  ye  mimes 
And  siiadows  of  our  grandeur,  pigmies  swelled 
And  puffed  beyond  proportion — better  willed 
You  seem  in  act  to  fly,  than  when,  too  bold, 
You  thought  to  meet  the  substance  of  your  shade, 
And  try  what  strength  might  lie  in  real  gods. 
But  thou,  first  parasite  of  hell,  remain, 
And  fly  not,  as  becomes  their  leader,  first, — 
That  in  the  rear  of  rout  this  arm  may  reach 
To  drag  thee  by  the  false-crowned  head  reverse, 
And  strangle  thy  new  godhead  in  my  gripe.'' 

Wide-eyed  retort  with  lightning  filled  the  face 
Of  Cain,  but  thunder  from  Alcides  broke. 
"Weak  hejid  and  arm,  but  warlike  frown  and  sound, 


CHRIST     IN      HADES.  73 

And  gesture  dread,  thee,  and  thy  vaunting  mates, 

What  dumb  hierophant  could  doubt  divine, 

Since  ye  sustain  so  many  dire  defeats, 

And  live,  yet  only  know  defeat?  And  this 

To  us  you  threat,  whose  fame  has  made  the  stars 

Still  shine  in  our  renown,  and  tell  our  deeds 

To  mortal  eyes — such  deeds  as  fill  not  heaven 

Without  faint  glory  even  in  this  pit, — 

To  me  ! — who  never  knew  defeat  or  shame, 

But  mean  to  add  a  labor  to  my  twelve, 

And  from  thy  impious  mouth  tear  out  that  tongue, 

Engine  of  blasphemy  and  faction  still, 

And  to  this  leonine  trophy  add  the  fell 

From  thy  brute-browed  and  far  less  godlike  head." 

Thus,  pillared  Hercules, — and  Baal  replied, 
But  more  disturbed,  as  more  like  his  own  boast 
The  harsh  refrain,  shook  like  a  tower,  that  sapped 
By  secret  mine,  though  full  of  war  and  means 
Against  assault  and  siege,  threats  instant  fall. 
"  Dismay  of  thieves  and  brutes  !  learn  from  a  god 
Defeat,  honored  too  much  should  I  say  shame, 
Who  honor  thee  to  chastise  :  but  know,  that  loss 
In  such  a  warfare  as  we  waged,  I  deem 
4 


74  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

More  great  and  glorious,  than  such  as  thou 
To  quell  with  easy  victory,  as  we  shall." 

He  ended,  and  no  time  for  further  vaunt, 
Or  deeds,  when  lo — the  cause  of  the  delay  : 
On  right  and  left,  between  the  open  ranks 
Of  footmen  in  deep  files  withdrawn,  afar, 
Through  the  dispersed  smoke,  chariots  and  horse, 
In  size  and  action  to  the  gods  they  bore 
Not  disproportioned,  nor  unwieldy,  showed 
Tremendous  through  the  gloom :  of  all-pure  fire 
Their  subtle  essence,  into  shapes  like  these 
By  orient  or  Argive  warriors  wrought, 
At  the  quick  hint  of  ancient  use  afield. 
For  spirit  from  the  bonds  of  matter  freed 
Over  the  baser  substance  has  more  power, 
To  mould  it  into  shapes  diverse,  and  life 
Infuse,  impulse,  and  energy  divine, 
With  swiftest  operation  of  a  thought. 

Ere  word  might  fill  the  pause,  upon  the  foe, 
For  such  encounter  unprepared  with  like 
Or  other  means,  rushed  down  the  ethereous  steeds, 
Winged,  swift,  far-bounding,  thunder-hoofed,  and  each 
With  lightning  maned;    and  from  their  nostrils  wide, 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  75 

Breathed  pestilence  and  flame.     Themselves  in  look 

And  motion  irresistible,  'neath  the  flight 

They  ran  of  spears  and  javelins,  thrown  behind, 

Innumerous,  from  the  chariots,  that  from  far 

Rained  wounds  and  wide  confusion  on  the  foe, 

Dismayed  and  broken  ;   and  the  gulfing  wheels 

Trenched  their  deep  way  through  ranks  on  ranks  o'er- 

thrown, 

While  in  the  swarth  of  their  armed  axles  fell 
"Whole  groves  of  legionary  spears,  like  reeds 
Cut  by  the  sickle,  but  more  quickly  strowed 
That  living  meadow  by  swift  reapers  mowed, 
And  iron  harvest — stunned.     But  not  by  all 
Was  the  fierce  onset  unwithstood :  and  chief, 
And  full  of  strength  and  stature,  Baal  stood, 
As  when  in  some  great  deluge,  bearing  trees, 
Ships  from  their  anchors  loosed,  and  fabric  huge 
From  its  foundation  raised,  with  clinging  life 
Upon  the  wreck,  and  all  the  human  wealth 
Of  promontories  from  the  mainland  torn — 
Or  in  the  steep  flood  of  Vesuvius  poured 
Adown  its  vine-clad  sides — some  hill  untouched, 
With  its  green  top  and  plumy  forest  stands, 


76  CHRIST     IN-    HADES. 

With  promise  to  the  world  of  future  life, 

And  safety  possible  to  men  : — So  stood 

The  Toparch  strong :  On  whom  drove  Tubal-Cain, 

Thence  Vulcan  'clept,  whose  hands,  upon  the  forge, 

First  shaped  the  warlike  soil  to  sword  and  spear, 

And  chariots  framed,  and  bade  the  trumpet  neigh, 

And  gave  a  tongue  to  war.     But  in  the  field, 

Too  late,  the  fear  of  his  great  baron  smote 

The  armed  mechanic :  by  one  impulse  swayed, 

The  conscious  coursers  swerved,  and  where  the  head, 

From  the  strong  spine,  stooped  o'er  his  guiding  hand, 

A  blow  from  Baal's  sequent  blade,  reversed, 

And  sheer  descending,  fell ;  and  into  wreck 

Sunk  his  wheeled  pomp,  together  fiery  horse 

And  chariot  into  smoking  ruins  fade. 

But  him  Alcides  met,  as  through  the  field 
He  sought  whatever  had  withstood  the  shock 
Of  hippogriff,  and  centaur,  and  armed  wheel, 
With  courage  still  for  conflict :  whom,  unarmed, 
Fierce  Baal  thought,  with  one  sure  stroke,  to  cleave 
Miserably  twain :  a  moment  his  huge  sword, 
Uplifted,  adding  terror  to  its  sway, 
Hung  like  a  bladed  comet  in  the  air ; 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  77 

Then  fell,  unmeasured,  dreadful,  from  its  poise 

Thrown  forward  with  resistless  force  and  weight. 

Back  swift  Alcides  leaped,  nor  fled  too  soon  ; 

His  right  foot  stained  the  adamantine  point, 

That  trenched  the  rock  beneath,  as  where  a  stream 

Breaks  fissured  way.     Ere  Baal  from  the  blow 

Retrieved  his  height,  the  hydra-quelling  mace 

Fell  through  the  air,  with  horrible  descent : 

The  stroke  roared  like  a  wind,  and  on  his  casque 

Struck  thunder,  and  his  linked  armor  burst 

From  his  huge  trunk,  as  lightning  from  an  oak 

Breaks  shattered  rind  and  limbs  ;  crushed  acres  groaned 

At  his  decay,  and  o'er  the  din  of  war 

High  rose  the  iron  rumor  of  his  fall. 

Nor  did  less  tumult  swell  the  late  defeat 
Of  monstrous  Dagon,  from  whom,  worse  deformed 
With  hippodame  and  kraken,  self-assumed, 
So  spirits  can,  turned  infantry  and  steed, 
Nor  chose  the  ambush  of  his  doubtful  shape. 
On  him  Orion  clear,  came  undismayed, 
And  as  a  dusky  dragon,  in  close  shade 
Of  horrible  thicket,  sees,  from  his  deep  lair, 
With  sleepy  orbs  amazed,  a  silver  knight 


78  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

Shine  toward  him  like  the  sun,  with  like  blind  look 
He  saw  Orion  ;  who,  while  thus  he  stood, 
And  unresolved  to  fight  as  god  or  brute, 
Upon  his  many  shapes  discharged  a  stroke 
More  ruinous,  than  when,  rising  from  the  ark, 
Angered  Jehovah,  in  the  secret  night 
Of  his  dark  house,  the  biformed  Triton  struck 
Invisibly,  and  both  his  shapes  deformed. 

And  they  no  better  fared  at  human  hands, 
Who,  vain  of  human  empire,  chose  to  seem 
Their  own  invented  fictions,  in  the  wild 
And  wasteful  riot  of  imagining  mind, 
By  high,  angelic  genius  poesied 
In  vedas  and  puranas,  full  of  gods, 
By  accident  or  penance,  raised  to  heavens 
That  on  the  blue  Sumeru's  summits  lie, 
Above  the  sun,  in  the  unmoving  light 
Of  Brahm  ; — but  their  romancers  pined  beneath, 
In  the  immovable  darkness,  by  no  day 
Alternated  :  Who  yet,  this  day,  would  be 
The  awaking  of  their  dream,  the  living  gods 
Of  their  stone  idols,  and  together  marched — 
Bi-headed,  many-membered,  monstrous  shapes  ; 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  79 

That  more  by  their  complexity  of  parts 
Encumbered  than  assisted,  fell  and  writhed 
Beneath  the  single,  flashing  hand  that  held 
One  sword,  directed  by  a  dual  eye, 
And  by  swift  motion  multiplied  to  meet 
Their  many-weaponed,  idly  striking  hands  ; 
Too  late,  in  the  dread  imminence,  to  change 
Back  to  angelic  shape  and  wieldy  limbs. 

Before  all  others  terrible,  advanced 
Eight-handed  Shiva,  and,  with  insult  stern, 
Demanded  Magog  and  great  Madai  old,1 
Whose  filial  nations  peopled  the  world's  east, 
That  to  their  children's  deities  they,  too, 
Should  worship  render  ;  but  the  answer  felt 
On  his  crushed  brain,  so  swift — more  lion-like 
Than  like  dead  stone — the  fragment  of  a  rock 
Leaped  from  gray  Madai's  hand  ;  unstayed, 
Huge  Shiva's  head  sunk  on  his  rear-ward  breast ; 
Then,  one  by  one,  relaxed  his  threatening  arms, 
Hand  after  hand  its  clanging  weapon  dropped, 
And  clutched  the  air,  or  sought  with  outstretched  palms 
To  upstay  his  reeling  trunk  :  Then  Vishnu  forth 
Sprang  warrior-like,  and  stood  in  guise  and  shape 


80  CHRIST     IN      HADES. 

More  human,  but,  in  stature,  vast  as  when 
To  Shiva  and  to  Brahma,  claiming  each 
To  be  the  oldest  of  the  gods,  he  said — 
"  He  that  ascending  shall  behold  my  head, 
Or  that  descending  shall  descry  my  feet, 
Is  oldest :"  Weary  years  swift  Brahma  climbed, 
And  Shiva  dived,  but  neither  what  he  sought 
Discovered,  although  Brahma's  lie  prevailed. 

All  stood  amazed,  by  wonder  more  than  fear 
Disabled,  and  no  champion  to  assail 
The  armed  and  living  mountain  dared  a  thought  j 
Till  Indian  Dionysus,  reckless,  drove 
His  leaping  chariot,  whirled  by  tawny  pards, 
Toward  the  colossus  ;  and  a  javelin  hurled 
High  in  the  air  where  seemed  to  be  his  head, 
But  vainly,  and  another  at  his  breast 
As  vainly  threw  ;  both  through  the  phantasm  passed 
As  through  the  air ;  then  at  his  feet — where  stood. 
Beneath  the  mighty  umbrage,  the  true  form — 
A  third,  and  suddenly  the  towering  shape 
Fell  into  shadowy  ruin,  as  a  cloud, 
By  lightning  rent,  bursts,  and  descends  in  rain. 


CHRIST     IN      HADES.  81 

But  there  the  greatest  imminence  of  the  field 
Hung  doubtful,  and  the  noon  of  battle  stood, 
Where  Cain  met  Asrael.2     He  from  heaven  held 
Commission  still,  executor  of  the  word — 
Fatal  to  all,  in  Adam—"  Thou  shalt  die." 
Task  to  fulfil  by  no  damned  angel  sought, 
But,  eagerly,  by  him  ;  less  through  desire 
Of  the  carnivorous  glut,  than  from  the  strange, 
Inventive  pleasure  that  he  took  to  try 
Each  different  means  of  death,  and  power  in  each, 
And  task  the  last  capacity  of  pain  : 
To  men  invisible,  yet  by  many  names, 
White  Leprosy,  and  pined  Consumption,  known, 
Hot  Fever,  and  immedicable  Plague. 
But  now,  in  his  own  shape,  more  ghastly  stood 
The  mighty  Ethiop  :  from  his  caverned  head, 
With  hiding  basilisks  terrible,  and  browed 
With  night,  down  to  his  noiseless  feet 
Two  sable  wings  fell  wide ;  on  which  he  sails, 
Each  day,  o'er  all  earth's  region,  and  which  oft, 
When  he  o'er  some  full  capital,  forewrit 
For  desolation,  hovers  with  the  Night, 
Rain  pestilence.     And  thus  spake  the  fiend 
4» 


82  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

Polluted  most  and  deadliest  of  all  powers 

In  earth  or  hell.     "  First  rival,  and  my  first, 

But  too  reluctant  victim, — who  this  hand 

Preventedst  of  its  right  to  the  first  death, 

Thyself  to  feel  it  first ;  and  found'st  the  charm 

Sought  of  thy  God  against  my  dreaded  power, 

Less  potent ;  seek'st  thou  again  to  prove 

The  miserable  hour,  the  fear,  the  pain  ? 

Or  wouldst  thou,  for  my  victim  not  again 

Fate  yields  thee,  as  thou  deem'st,  become  my  slave 

By  second  conquest,  and  with  torpid  chain 

Lie  fever-bound  in  hell,  or,  at  my  choice, 

Sit  leprous  at  my  feet,  or  ague-struck, 

Unnerved,  and  palsied  in  my  presence  live  ?" 

To  whom  hell's  premier  answered,  with  close  brows 
"  Sick-haunting  raven,  pleased  with  carnal  taste 
Of  carcasses,  and  stench  of  monuments  ; 
Queller  of  babes,  fierce  troubler  of  the  old 
Bed-rid  humanity,  night-dismal  kite, 
Earth's  scavenger  !  dost  thou  thy  service  deck 
With  name  of  conquest? — for  thy  office  erst 
On  me  performed,  of  which  thy  boast  is  framed, 
Take  late  requital  now."     Swift,  at  the  word, 


CHRIST      IN      HA  DBS.  83 

The  felon  plant  that  armed  his  hand,  propulsed. 

Swung  circling  to  its  aim :  down  Asrael  sunk, 

Like  a  hurt  vulture,  on  his  ample  wings 

Recumbent ;  but  immediate  rose — as  she, 

Sick  with  the  peaceful  prospect  and  pure  air, 

Aloft,  springs  from  her  rock  against  the  wind 

That  brings  the  taint  of  death — and  with  that  sword 

Unseen,  beneath  whose  wound  the  host 

Of  Sennacherib  without  battle  fell, 

Or  in  dark  duel,  touched  triumphant  Cain  : 

No  wound,  nor  perforate  nor  trenched  gash  appeared, 

Ichor  or  blood  diffusing ;  pale  he  stood, 

A  breathing  time,  but  breathless  ;  forward  then, 

As  when  that  tropic  wind  that  comes  unseen 

In  sea  or  sky,  a  tall  mast,  cordage-knit, 

With  all  its  drawing  clouds,  snaps  short — it  falls 

Sea-ward,  and  circling  half  the  sky — he  fell, 

Without  a  sound  till  fallen,  and  felt  death 

So  as  the  spirit  can,  and  as  the  parting  soul 

Perhaps  may  feel  it,  when  with  mortal  pangs 

Struck  through  the  bodily  sense,  but  not  destroyed. 

But  courage  now,  from  the  first  shock  o'erpast, 
Encouraged  more,  to  see  the  fall  indign 


84  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

Of  one  so  potent,  in  the  heavenly  powers 

Revived,  with  furious  shame ;  and,  by  their  foes 

Taught  horror,  armed  with  flames  they  fought, 

And  fire  opposed  to  fire :  flash  lighted  flash, 

And  lightning  against  lightning  streamed  adverse, 

And  on  their  helmets  blazed,  and  round  their  shields 

Rolled  in  terrific  circles.     Each  a  Jove, 

Ethereal-armed,  seemed,  fighting ;  and  the  crash 

Of  simulated  thunder  wanted  not 

From  fall  of  heroes  armed,  and  din  of  shields. 

Earth  shook,  and  universal  silence  roared 

With  sudden  dissolution.     Nor  withstood 

The  fiery  cavalry  the  assault  of  arms 

Of  their  own  substance  forged  ;  down  sunk 

The  snorting  team,  or  into  formless  flame 

Their  speed  escaped  :  when  lo — a  stranger  change  ! 

Below  heroic  dignity  debased, 

Gods,  by  demoniac  instincts  and  wild  rage 

Excited,  leaving  form  and  port  divine, 

Took  shape  of  lion,  pard,  or  serpent  fanged, 

As  bold  or  treacherous  nature  prompted  each 

With  horrible  suggestion.     On  each  side, 

With  shapes  of  heaven,  and  human  features,  mixed, 


CHRIST     IN     HADES.  85 

Huge  tigers  crouched,  and  glared,  or  the  scared  field 

Circled  with  threatening  yell  and  fiery  spang  ; 

And  unicorn  and  centaur  to  the  clang 

Of  trumpets  neighed.     But  such  a  sight  not  long, 

God,  from  his  all-surveying  height,  might  leave 

In  heavenly  prospect.     Suddenly  a  storm — 

Blown  periodic  from  the  wastes  of  hell — 

Fresh  fuelled  with  the  wrath  of  fire,  came  down, 

Involved  with  thunderous  roar  and  dismal  shade. 

Like  mountain  peaks  above  the  mist,  the  flames, 

Through  pitchy  clouds,  rolled  their  advancing  spires 

To  heights  unmeasured,  and  the  sulphurous  air 

Kindled  with  quick  combustion  :   wide  around, 

Linked  lightnings  fell,  and  thunder  denounced  wreck 

To  all  that  stood  before.     Not  sooner  fall, 

When,  in  the  desert,  'gainst  a  caravan, 

Of  merchant-camels  Bedouin  horsemen  ride, 

If  the  fierce  saymel  redden  the  blind  air, 

Robber  and  spoil,  than  these,  of  men  or  gods 

Embattled,  first,  and  in  most  dreadful  field, 

Fell  miserably,  with  all  their  useless  arms 

And  puissance,  defeated,  at  the  breath 

Of  their  great  Arbiter,  unmoved,  in  heaven. 


BOOK   IV. 


BOOK   IV. 

JUST  then,  as  on  the  night  that  with  veiled  stars, 
And  brows  with  deeper  folds  of  darkness  bound, 
Attended  Christ's  great  burial,  Titan-morn, 
From  out  the  east  horizon's  fiery  gulf, 
Upheaved  his  flaming  orb, — just  then,  and  neat 
Where,  sunk  below  its  farthest  published  beam, 
Abaddon  sat  dethroned  before  his  throne, 
Amid  the  stern  and  darkness-deepening  frown 
Of  mutinous  gods, — the  silent  throng  of  saints, 
Before  the  mountain-altar  on  which  stood 
Their  sacrifice  and  Saviour,  from  the  floor 
Of  paradise  uprising,  to  the  day 
Of  his  refulgent  look,  unveiled  their  eyes — 
Splendrous  with  unaccustomed  light,  and  bathed 
In  the  translucent  dew  from  their  great  joy 


90  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

Distilled,  in  unrepressed,  calm  tears,  that  each 
Insphered  a  smile,  as  dew-born  drops,  a  sun ; 
And  made  fresh  flowers  spring  where'er  they  fell. 

He,  from  his  eminence,  discerning  all 
His  rescued  flock,  as,  with  the  rising  sun, 
A  shepherd,  from  his  height,  o'erlooks  a  field 
White  with  his  peaceful  feudatories,  smiled 
Manifest  love,  which  that  far-banished  realm 
Than  sapphire  heaven  more  brightened ;  and  these  words 
Spake,1  far  and  near  heard  equally  distinct. 
"  Loved  and  elect  of  Heaven,  loved  by  me, 
From  everlasting,  with  fraternal  love  ; 
For  whom  I  left  the  Godhead's  high  repose, 
And  clear  and  tranquil  sway,  and,  in  this  form, 
Have  sought,  and  in  this  place — from  earth 
Descending,  through  the  gate  of  death — 
Meet  you,  with  joy  like  yours  ;  and  greater  joy 
Preparing,  shall  soon  lead  you  where  with  me, 
They  whose  sole  rest  has  been  in  sleep  and  death, 
Shall  rest  from  death  in  life,  from  sleep  awake, 
To  rest  in  waking,  where  no  night,  nor  sleep, 
Falls  on  the  eyes,  nor  dimness  of  the  soul 
Beclouds  them,  or  from  weariness  or  tears. 


CHRIST      IN      HADEB.  91 

But  first,  I  hither  come  to  win  the  keys 
Of  heavenly  access  from  the  sovran  foe, 
And  your  accuser  ;    yielded  to  his  hand, 
Till  one  of  human  kind  shall  wrest  them  thence : 
Nor  does  he  doubt,  who  put  to  test  the  strength 
Of  military  heaven,  and  dared  to  cite 
His  throned  liege  to  duel,  these  to  keep 
In  his  propriety,  'gainst  a  foe  so  weak. 
Now,  first,  shall  your  dark  janitor  suspect 
That  not  for  his  strict  hate,  and  your  fixed  doom, 
He  holds  that  office,  but  for  his  defeat 
And  your  advantage,  in  the  distant  scope 
Of  Heaven's  purpose,  that  debars  your  right 
To  heavenly  station  with  the  pure  unfallen 
Deities,  and  yet  creatures,  (who,  because 
Created,  use  their  gift  of  narrow  thought 
More  to  be  just  than  merciful,  and  great 
More  than  magnanimous,)  until  a  man, 
Never  polluted,  and  with  glory  more 
Than  they  adorned,  and  with  the  Father's  love, 
Lead  up  his  erring  race,  and  in  their  shape, 
Before  the  bosom-seraphim,  and  great 
Angelic  elders,  high  above  all  place 


92  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

Throned,  and  advanced  at  the  right  hand  of  Power, 

Authenticate  their  title  to  a  seat 

Above  their  origin  or  merit ;  and  pride, 

Heaven's  sole  temptation,  and  through  which  alone 

Angels  are  fallible,  to  worship  turn 

And  meet  humility.     My  coming  long  deferred 

You  deemed,  and,  in  this  banishment,  complained 

Yourselves  Heaven's  orphans,  if  indeed  his  sons. 

I  came  not  in  the  green  and  sunless  time 

Of  patriarchal  writ,  the  shepherd  age, 

"When  on  the  sparsely  tented  Asian  fields 

Still  hung  creation's  early  dawn  and  mist, 

Lest  legendary  soon,  forgot,  or  mixed 

With  fable,  should  become  the  act  whose  fame, 

Though  harsh  to  untuned  ears  the  hymn  of  death, 

Shall  henceforth  be  the  music  of  the  world  : 

But  on  the  plenary  and  highest  noon 

Of  human  wisdom,  though  at  brightest  dark, 

I  rose  with  light,  and  to  the  greatest  height 

Of  man's  ascent  descended.     Now  begins, 

Far  stretching  o'er  all  empire  to  the  end, 

My  reign  on  earth :  Jerusalem  no  more, 

But  all  the  earth  is  holy.     Sion  still 


CHRIST     IN     HADES.  93 

Bears  on  her  hills  a  temple,  fashioned  high, 

And  full  of  glorious  office,  but  devoid 

His  presence  who  from  human  lips  loves  truth 

More  than  his  praise  ;  and  soon  her  Holiest  Place 

Beneath  the  feet  of  nations  shall  be  stamped, 

And  bruised  with  iron  dint :  To-day  is  laid 

With  deep  and  sure  foundation  in  my  death, 

Soon,  in  my  resurrection,  to  be  raised 

With  heavenly  superstructure  fair,  the  new 

Jerusalem  ;  the  undecaying  pile 

Of  glory  spiritual,  whose  most  pure  walls 

Shall  be  the  illimitable  air,  her  gates 

The  East  and  West, — but  Sion  is  no  more." 

At  this,  not  spoken  by  their  heavenly  Guest 

Without  some  touch  of  sorrow,  not  a  few 

Among  the  dwellers  on  that  pallid  shore, 

Wept  irrepressibly ;  and  hoary  heads 

Desponded  patiently  upon  the  breast 

Of  king  and  prophet ;  and  a  sound  was  heard, 

As  of  the  golden  strings  of  many  a  harp 

Broken  by  hasty  hands,  and  sighs  were  breathed, 

And  sobs  tumultuous ;  as  when  a  band 

Of  exiles,  on  a  foreign  coast,  to  hear 


94  CHRIST     IN     HADE8.- 

The  ruin  of  their  city,  while  for  wrongs 

And  injuries  they  should  smile,  break  out  and  weep. 

But  thus  his  interrupted  speech  pursued 
The  orator  divine,  seer  self-inspired : 
"  The  earth  is  mine,  my  empire  over  all 
Imperial ;  and  now  to  the  defeat 
Of  hell,  and  of  the  last  infernal  hope, 
I  lead  you  forth  ;  not  for  the  unarmed  aid 
That  ye  can  render,  who,  at  rest,  shall  see 
Victory  from  armies  wrested,  without  arms. 
And  to  this  end,  through  recent  quarrel,  sprung 
From  the  unnatural  league  of  fiends  and  men, 
Innumerous  hell  is  gathering  to  one  field 
Her  legions ;  and,  in  realms  of  heat  and  cold, 
All  the  remotest  lurkings  of  despair 
Yield  their  dark  tenants,  in  one  confluent  host 
Assembled,  to  receive  me  with  my  saints. 

He  ceased,  and  to  the  earth  once  more  they  bowed, 
Thanks  giving  and  adoring :  low,  at  once, 
Bowed  saint  and  airy  minister :  but  one 
There  was  who  nearer  clung,  and  at  his  feet 
Bewildered  wept ;  no  citizen  more  old 
Of  this  fair  region  than  that  hour,  with  Christ, 


CHRIST     IN     HADES.  95 

The  only  human  shape  besides,  he  came. 

And  proved  so  soon  the  promise,  "  Thou  this  day 

Shalt  be  with  me  in  paradise."     Then  all 

The  ethereous  host,  inspiring  mighty  breath, 

For  conceived  anthemings  of  vaster  tone, 

With  noise  as  of  the  calm  sea  thundering,  stirred, 

And  sunk  and  rose  in  sounding  depths  and  heights ; 

And  to  that  dark  profound,  from  highest  heaven, 

Their  harps  drew  echoes  ;  and  the  solemn  crowd, 

Beneath  and  distant,  whitening  hill  and  plain 

Far  stretched  without  horizon,  hymning  in 

With  apt  and  instant  hallelujahs,  poured 

Doxology  and  thanksgiving,  highest  praise, 

And  glory  highest ;  while,  through  all  the  air, 

Upon  the  multitude  around  fell  flowers, 

By  seen  and  unseen  hovering  angels  showered, 

Profusely,  from  their  hands  and  loosened  locks  ; 

Fresh  roses,  lilies,  and  violets,  like  morn 

With  evening  blended :  as  if  flowery  heaven 

Had  shaken  down  its  blossoms  to  the  wind, 

And  all  its  thick,  ambrosial  branches  loosed 

Their  bloom  and  fragrance ;  or  the  under  sky 

Its  stars  had  snowed  down,  noiseless,  from  the  blue 


96  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

Serene  of  night.     That  moment,  where,  beneath, 

The  dread,  transfigured  peak  leaned  from  the  verge 

Of  the  ingulfed,  unfathomable  void, 

A  shadow  fell  along  the  airy  steep, 

And  vanished,  like  a  just  appearing  cloud 

Below  the  horizon  driven  by  the  wind — 

A  shadow,  but  with  lineaments  and  shape 

Like  human,  that  grew  pale  almost  to  air, 

And  cast  a  look  behind,  that  had  made  dumb 

Deep  groaning  pain,  or  hollow-shrieked  despair  ; 

For  Judas  knew  his  Lord,  and  stretched  his  arms, 

With  that  last  look,  reverse  to  his  descent, 

And,  headlong,  disappeared  in  the  deep  gulf. 


BOOK   V. 


BOOK    V. 

WITHDRAWN  from  that  dire  field,  and  far  remote 
Each  from  the  other  in  the  unbounded  waste. 
The  hostile  powers  took  counsel  for  their  state 
What  farther,  on  each  part,  might  be  devised 
To  end  the  war,  and  in  their  vexed  domain 
Fix  the  disputed  sceptre.     And  not  long 
The  place  to  which  the  angelic  tribes  retired 
To  build  again  the  wreck  of  war,  remained 
Without  intelligent  sound  amidst  the  roar 
Of  elements  dismayed,  and  guttural  dash 
And  low-lisped  threatenings  of  the  sinking  storm. 
First,  Baal  lingered  up,  and  cast  around 
A  sullen  eye,  as  if  to  seek  a  foe 
Or  challenge  accusation  ;  but  none  stirred. 
Some  sat  with  head  bowed  low,  some  lay  supine 
At  monstrous  length,  and  others,  half  reclined, 


100  CHRIST     IN      HADES. 

Looked  up  into  the  darkness  with  fixed  eye. 

But  by  their  apathy  not  less  enraged, 

His  fury  dashed  itself  against  despair, 

In  words  like  these :  "  Since  none  who  shared  with  me 

This  late  prodigious  fortune,  would  impeach 

My  conduct  of  the  war,  or  cares  to  hint 

It  otherwise  had  fallen  had  Satan  led, 

There  haply  needs  not  to  enforce  my  words 

The  rebel-dared  decadence  of  this  hand. 

Yet  why  of  words  speak  I  ?  at  all  why  speak  ! 

'Tis  not  the  skill  of  words  can  cure  these  wounds, 

Or  heal  the  breach  in  our  strong  title  up : 

It  lies  not  in  the  flowery  epilogue 

To  an  act  barren  of  glory,  or  the  pomp 

Of  eloquent  declaim  'gainst  earless  fate, 

To  excuse  dishonor,  thus  dishonored  more, 

And  doubly  shamed  defeat,  from  foes  so  weak. 

But  this  we  all  have  proved  long  since,  that  fate, 

Who  to  the  strong  gave  courage,  on  the  weak 

Bestowed  more  cunning,  and,  for  want  of  power 

Found  in  themselves,  the  mastery  o'er  powers 

Extrinsic :  yet  their  artifice  once  known, 

What  more  can  it  avail  ?     But  strength  bestowed 


CHRIST     IN      HADES.  101 

Is  a  perpetual  gift,  if  courage  not  deserts 

The  citadel  of  all  power.     Rise  then,  and  arm  ! 

Prevent  their  new  devices,  and  perchance 

Their  triumph  may  prove  prologue,  in  the  end, 

To  worse  disgrace,  and  be  to  our  defeat 

As  when  one  lifts  a  foe  above  his  head 

To  dash  him  from  the  height  beneath  his  feet." 

He  spake  ;  but  none  who  bowed  looked  up,  and  they 
Who  flooded  all  the  field  with  disarray, 
And  loose  disordered  arms,  rose  not,  nor  stirred. 

Then  to  the  moody  senate,  from  his  seat. 
Composed,  nor  with  defeat  in  look  or  mien, 
Stood  up  mercurial  Asmod  the  divine: 
His  argent  shield,  thrown  back  in  peaceful  guise, 
Horizoned,  round,  his  head  and  shoulders  fair ; 
And  on  his  ebon  spear  he  leaned,  with  mien 
That  made  it  seem  for  this,  not  war  designed. 
And  thus,  unchecked  by  Baal's  hostile  eye, 
He  spake.     "  Much  have  I  heard  of  late,  oh  friends. 
Since  the  all-golden  day  of  our  estate 
Gave  place  to  this  sad  night,  in  which  we  dream, 
With  strange  invention — heard  and  pondered  much, 
In  the  celestial  argument  of  gods, 


102  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

And  imitative  poesy  of  men, 

Of  destiny,  necessity,  and  fate  : 

But  only  this  have  learned  thus  far,  that  fate 

Is  power,  and  power  in  us  is  fate,  till  met 

With  greater  power,  be  it  of  strength,  or  skill 

That  makes  strength  instrumental.     Both  we  find 

Abundant  in  our  foe,  though  of  the  first 

Our  leader  but  complains,  with  what  just  cause 

Both  to  accuse  ye  know.     Omniscient  craft 

I,  least,  can  doubt  in  them,  who  me  so  oft, 

Their  instigator  to  device,  have  taught 

Means  to  the  end.     The  race,  in  motion  warm, 

Symposiac  and  amorous,  yet  forced 

To  rear  their  lives  upon  an  iron  soil, 

And  make  their  over-peopled  rock  yield  life 

Against  its  nature,  every  faculty 

Of  art  apply,  exhaust ;  and  hither  still 

The  warlike  breed  descend,  and  bring  to  these 

Who  arm  against  us  each  invention  strange, 

Each  artifice  and  new  implement  of  war — 

Huge  catapult,  or  enginery  to  raze 

Walled  cities  at  a  blow,  or  overthrow 

Whole  armies,  at  safe  distance,  and  secure. 


CHRIST     IN     HADES.  103 

What  can  avail  blind  force,  though  armed  like  Jove, 

And  limbed  like  Atlas,  that  bears  up  the  world, 

Against  high  stratagem,  that  turns  its  harm 

Against  itself,  and  binds  it  with  the  chain 

Of  its  own  rage,  toils  in  its  own  attempt, 

And  makes  its  arms  the  armory  whence  it  draws 

Means  for  assault.     Sooner  shall  we,  here  shut 

Under  the  dark,  unyielding  doors  of  earth, 

Storm  the  closed  gates  of  heaven,  and  repossess 

The  seats  imperial  where  our  ruin  sits, 

Or,  from  this  gulf  of  night  ascending  up, 

Hang  trophies  on  the  pillars  of  the  sun, 

Than  found  a  kingdom,  here,  upon  the  forced 

Subjection  of  these  less,  yet  more  than  gods. 

Our  utmost  flight  of  hope  must  perch,  this  side 

Success,  on  special  victory,  whose  bruit 

May  clamor  'gainst  the  fame  of  this  defeat. 

But  from  what  stratagem,  since  even  here 

Mere  force  is  vain,  as  this  sad  field  attests, 

Shall  hope  commence  ?     I  know  of  none  but  this  ; 

They  through  old  instinct,  though  with  choice  of  state, 

Still  keep  their  ancient  shape,  firm-knit  to  tread 

The  earth  their  limitation.     Also  we, 


104  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

Though  in  this  dungeon  shut  with  human  gnomes, 

Agile  and  tall  remain,  with  wings  to  soar, 

Or  dive,  or  sweep  the  air  in  circles,  or  extend 

The  equator,  or  the  horizontal  plane, 

Or  the  deep  pole.     I  counsel,  then,  to  ascend 

Into  the  darkness,  bearing  all  our  war, 

And,  coasting  near  the  upper  light  and  air, 

Until  arrived  to  where  they  sit  secure, 

In  loose  unharnessed  ease,  and  paeans  sing, 

On  them — whose  wave  of  battle  in  this  deep 

Broke  highest,  and  o'erwhelmed  us — down  descend 

In  cataract  of  main  war.     Which,  if  approved, 

With  instant  speed  perform :  lest  while  we  sit 

And  meditate  the  voyage,  they  prevent 

Our  purpose  with  the  sudden  clang  of  wings 

Induced  at  like  suggestion,  and  rain  chains 

And  fiery  missiles  from  the  darkness  down  ; 

Or  come  trailing  along  the  ground  some  damned 

Invention,  and  strange  implement,  to  throw 

Huge  fragments,  crags,  and  flaming  stones,  and  turn 

Hell's  bottom  on  our  heads,  who  sit  thus  prone, 

Disordered,  unresolved,  a  host  disarmed 

With  arms  around,  as  if,  without  a  foe. 


CHRIST     IN      HADES.  105 

By  their  own  weapons  fallen  ;  so  dismayed 
And  lost  we  seem,  without  all  pride  and  shame, 
Thus  miserably  escaped  their  first  assault/' 

He  ceased  ;  and  they  approved  his  words  as  wise, 
And  fit  to  become  deeds.     Straight,  from  the  heap 
Of  waste  confusion  Alpine  statures  tall 
Gathered  themselves  upright,  and  plucked  their  arms, 
And  standards  reared,  redressed  their  shattered  gear, 
And   in    their    threatening    limbs,    new-armed,    their 

strength 

And  purpose  felt,  and  poised  themselves  in  air 
On  their  long-idle  wings  ;  with  not  less  stir 
Than  the  black  cranes  in  Lithuania's  fens 
When,  from  the  austral  winter  overpast, 
Rise  all  the  stormy  clans,  and  seek  the  north. 


Meantime,  the  earth-descended  powers  convened 
In  martial  diet ;  and — high-seated  Cain 
First  worshipped  with  obeisance  due — began 
Colonial  Cecrops,  father  of  the  West, 
And  founder  of  the  famed  Athenian  pile  : 
With  weighty  brow,  that  frowned  high  enterprise 
5» 


106  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

Above  sagacious  eyes  that  tempered  fear, 

He  stood  erect,  and  crowned  with  that  sole  star 

Of  Hesperus ;  and  these  his  words,  that  fell 

With  sound  of  weight,  that  echoed  ponderous  thought. 

"  Not  less,  in  this  armed  council,  than  the  first 

To  exult,  I  glory  in  the  event 

Of  this  late  trial  with  the  elder  powers 

Of  their  celestial  vaunt.     Yet  victory  I  know 

Not  certain  conquest ;  and  to  overthrow 

Not  always  subjugates  ;  nor  in  one  field 

Is  empire  lost  or  won  ;  nor  can  one  day 

Decide  the  next,  when  foes  so  potent  join. 

They  who  best  know  and  prize  themselves,  least  fear 

To  prize  their  enemies.     To  us  their  power 

Is  neither  shame  nor  loss,  to  think  them  weak 

No  credit  to  our  own  ;  nor  shames  it  strength 

To  seek  for  aid,  that  oft  prevents  its  need  : 

Which,  not  delayed,  I  counsel  for  our  cause, 

Against  the  next  encounter,  sure  to  fall. 

None  here  would  use  a  thought  to  look  for  help 

To  mighty  Aidoneus  where  he  sits 

With  Hecate  forlorn.     Nor,  if  unsought, 

Perhaps  for  sullen  ages  may  he  rise 


CHRIST      IN      HADE3.  107 

From  his  stern  apathy :  while  these  will  wage 

Eternal  war ;  and  as  the  blue-eyed  race 

Of  Asar,  daily,  in  their  own  demesne, 

On  bannered  fields,  with  joyful  peal  of  arms, 

Contend  in  tournament  and  knightly  joust, 

Or  downright  battle  soon  repaired — so  we, 

Not  with  like  gentle  purpose  and  stern  love, 

But  fierce  unsated  hate,  the  deadly  rut 

Of  unrepairing  rage,  and  pined  revenge, 

By  slaughter  unappeased,  but  fed  by  strife. 

Shall  meet  a  foe  as  strong  and  stern  ;  and,  each 

Unconquerable,  to  each  the  endless  strife 

Shall  be  defeat.     In  numbers  we  exceed, 

And  this  advantage  will  our  party  still, 

With  augmentation,  keep  ;  for  every  death 

On  earth  above,  save  of  the  few  who  pass 

To  blest  Elysium,  is  to  us  a  birth  : 

While  to  their  side,  the  kindred  powers  of  heaven, 

Unprocreant,  immortal,  and  ordained 

Infallible,  yield  not  the  numerous  might 

Of  their  addition.     But  we  need  not  wait 

The  harvest  of  our  race  for  multitude, 

If  not  controlling,  not  to  be  controlled. 


108  CHRIST     IN     HADES 

The  sons  of  Coelus  and  of  Odin  sit, 

Titans  and  fierce  Einherier,  undisturbed, 

Each  in  their  toparchy  ;  and  have  not  heard 

The  larum  of  loud  war,  or  from  the  noise 

Of  elemental  conflict  in  these  gulfs 

Distinguished  it.     I  counsel  that  from  these, 

Ambassadors,  on  early  foot,  entreat 

Availful  aid.     Besides  the  advantage  sought, 

'Twere  to  mankind  much  shame  that  our  bad  foes, 

Who  no  relationship  sustain  or  ties, 

But  of  degree  or  rank,  should  make  one  cause, 

And  we,  derived  from  the  same  loins,  with  one 

Sole  father,  and  one  common  spring 

Of  all  our  streams,  not  make  one  flood,  one  sea 

Of  confluent  battle,  and  in  one  armed  wave 

Break  on  their  leaguer,  or  main  head  of  fight. 

From  Saturn,  of  the  Titans  youngest  born, 

So  the  Olympian  parables  unfold, 

(Whom  the  pragmatic  Judeans  would  fain 

Demonstrate  Noah,)  sprang  the  race  of  gods. 

Him  vengeful  Earth,  we  story,  armed  with  steel 

And  saved  from  Uranus  what  time  he  thrust 

His  giant  offspring  from  his  sight  beneath 


CHRIST     IN      HADES.  109 

The  floor  of  day,  but  whom  by  Heaven  himself 
They  celebrate  preserved.     From  him,  three  sons 
Shared  all  the  earth  we  also  said,  and  named 
Zeus,  Hades,  and  Poseidon.     But  the  Greeks 
To  old  lapetus1  trace  the  human  stream, 
Brother  of  Saturn,  whom  these  call  his  son  ; 
From  him  loan,  whence  the  lonians  spread 
Westward  ;  and  from  fair  Gomer,  eldest  born 
Of  the  same  sire,  the  north  derives  its  swarm, 
That  from  the  flowery  south  poured  forth,  to  hive 
In  frost  and  cold  ;  from  him  it  takes  its  name 
Cimmeria,  thence  the  Cymri,  and  from  him 
The  Rome-recoiling  German  ;  and  his  sons, 
Guileless  and  simple,  virtuous  without  lore, 
And  warlike  without  pomp,  spread  from  the  steep 
Sides  of  hoar  Caucasus  to  the  region  dark 
That  neighbors  the  sea-washed  Atlantis  vast, 
And  northward,  at  the  entrance  to  these  shades, 
Shores  on  the  cavernous  pole.     There  oft,  at  night, 
The  solitary  fisher  hears  upon  his  door 
The  hollow  summons  to  his  task,  and  finds 
His  boat  deep-freighted,  sinking  to  the  edge 
Of  the  dark  flood,  and  voices  hears,  yet  sees 


110  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

No  substance ;  but  arrived  where  once  again 
His  skiff  floats  free,  hears  friends  to  friends 
Give  lamentable  welcome  :  the  unseen 
Shore  resounds,  and  all  the  specious  air 
Weeps  forth  the  names  of  father,  brother,  wife. 
There  the  weak  commonalty  of  mankind 
Most  haunt,  reluctant  exiles,  who  their  fond 
Abode  choose  regional  to  earth  ;  the  more 
Heroic  enter  the  immediate  heart 
Of  most  profound  perdition,  and  divide, 
In  these  interior  depths,  their  full-swayed  power, 
Imperial,  with  the  ancient  thrones  of  night. 

But  not  the  whole  of  our  unhappy  race 
Make  that  dark  journey  :  they  who  erred 
Through  Heaven's  dark  counsel,  or  by  high  constraint, 
Just  homicides,  and  violators  bred 
To  violence,  the  rash  incontinent, 
And  they  who  break  injurious  oaths,  at  death 
Are  wafted  to  deep-realmed  Atlantis,  o'er 
The  wide  sea  unwounded  by  a  keel. 
Immense  and  dark  the  land  ;  all  the  remote 
Wild  region  in  one  solemn  shadow  lies 
Of  green  contiguous  woods,  with  rivers  spanned, 


CHRIST     IN     HADES.  Ill 

That  in  their  arms  wind  half  the  earth,  and  hills 
Dependent,  and  dividing  the  blue  air, 
From  arctic  to  antarctic  Cold :  and  here 
Live  the  new  race  a  timid,  twilight  life, 
Oblivious  and  expiatory,  spent 
In  feeble  war  or  chase.     But  soon,  (so  shows 
Our  divination  dark,  a  gift  no  more, 
Itself  informs  us,  to  suborn  the  praise 
And  adoration,  as  to  gods,  of  men, — 
Once  yielded  to  our  oracles,  on  earth 
For  ever  sealed ;  yet  who  can  cease  to  feel 
A  human  interest  in  our  common  race, 
And  their  dark  history,  storied  or  foretold?)— 
Soon  shall  this  upper  limbo,  and  in  part 
Elysium,  dissolve  ;  the  older  breed 
Of  actual  men  shall  touch  the  farther  shore 
Of  ocean,  and  the  hybrid  race  shall  fade 
Like  hyperborean  flowers,  that  in  the  rear 
Of  winter  spring,  and  at  his  bleak  regress 
Fall,  sickled  by  the  steely  touch  of  frost. 
"West  from  the  gulfed  pillars  of  the  wide- 
Victorious  Hercules,  swift  equine  ships 
Shall  ride  the  unfooted  ocean-road,  before 


112  CHRIST     IN     11  A  D  E  3  . 

O'erpassed  but  by  the  chariot  of  the  sun ; 

Or  when  his  golden  cup  Alcmena's  child 

Employed  for  Erythea,  and  against 

Old  Ocean  bent  his  bow,  so  fable  tells. 

These,  one  shall  guide,  whose  greater  deeds  shall  make 

Mine,  and  the  more  vociferated  fame 

Of  Jason — in  the  voyage  that  called  gods 

To  venture,  and  pressed  Theseus  to  the  oar. 

The  Dioscuri,  and  the  aged  might 

Of  Hercules — an  old-time  tale,  a  faint, 

Far-listened  echo  in  the  ears  of  men. 

Him  following,  the  sons  of  that  stern  race, 

Here  seated  by  themselves,  but  whose  strong  aid, 

If  I  advise  with  wisdom,  should  be  sought, 

Shall  there  build  up  a  world  against  the  old, 

And  balance  East  and  West,  and  wield  far-swayed 

But  liberal  empire,  and  themselves  their  king. 

But  what  imports  us  more  than  such  discourse. 
Though  what  at  other  times  best  pleased  to  hear, 
Is  now  to  fortify  our  assaulted  state 
"With  league  proposed  to  their  great  ancestry, 
Already  storied  in  deific  runes. 
And  to  our  own  and  theirs,  the  Titan  brood, 


CHRIST     IN     HADES.  113 

Antediluvian  ;  and  to  this  end. 

Let  speedy  heralds  to  the  north  and  east, 

Their  early-seized  partitions  of  this  realm, 

Fly.  winged  with  your  commands."     Here  ceased  the 

sound ; 

And  the  pleased  diet  on  his  proper  hand 
The  peaceful  wand  imposed,  and  bade  him  seek 
The  Titans  with  soft  words ;  the  other  charge 
On  fleet,  aerial  Perseus  bestowed ; 
Then  rose,  and  filled  the  dusky  height  with  shape 
And  feature,  and,  for  dawn  of  danger,  roused 
The  hoarse,  prophetic  thunder  of  a  camp. 


BOOK   VI. 


BOOK  VI. 

To  punish  them,  though  damned,  in  whom  the  light 

Of  heavenly  counsel  scarce  displaced  the  dark 

Of  human  ignorance,  the  rod  is  slight, 

The  penalty  not  extreme.     This,  to  their  gain, 

Found  the  gigantic  children  of  the  north 

In  the  dim  house  of  Hela  entertained 

More  like  death's  guests  than  victims,  though  at  best 

With  dreary  cheer.     Their  empire,  dark  and  wild, 

But  not  from  Pandemonium  less  remote 

Than  Paradise,  in  the  uttermost  bleak  sides 

Of  that  deep  region,  stands,  replete  with  fear 

And  howling  dangers,  but  unvexed  by  fire. 

Here  pallid  heroes  act  again  their  deeds 

Rehearsed  in  runes,  and  emulate  the  fame 

Of  the  bright  Asar,1  and  their  state  by  bards 

Imagined,  in  great  Asgard,  seat  of  gods, 


118  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

Or  frozen  Utgard,  territory  wide 

Of  giants  mountain-tall,  and  strong  as  winds. 

Here  Nastrond's  snaky  marsh,  whose  waves  freeze  black, 

And  thaw  in  blood,  spreads  under  curdling  mists ; 

Where  base  and  coward  lie,  forever  scared, 

For  punishment,  with  terrors  ever  new. 

For  the  less  monstrous,  frowning  Helheim  stands. 

Within  whose  icy  halls  the  dead  guests  sit, 

Unmoved,  and  mute  through  noiseless  age  on  age. 

But  in  more  temperate  air  Vingolfa's  bower 

Shelters  the  tall  blue-eyed,  and  flowers ;  both  fair, 

But  without  bloom  ;  and  Trudvang  here  in-walls 

A  space  wide  for  a  realm  :  as  high  up  piled, 

Valaskialf  rises,  roofed  with  blazing  shields. 

That  spread  a  golden  blush  upon  the  clouds 

Hovering  on  earth's  near  confines  in  the  north, 

And  from  beneath,  like  sinking  Titan,  light 

A  skiey  arc  above  ;  so  vast  it  towers 

O'er  deep  Valhalla  and  its  seated  throng 

Of  godlike  tenants  :  and  the  dome  resounds 

With  fierce  festivity  and  iron  din. 

Here,  with  the  Asar  and  Asynior,  sit 
The  Einherier,  and  Valkyrior  virgin-eyed, 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  119 

Who  each  her  chosen  warrior — wooed  a-field — 
Binds  to  her  breast,  with  golden  tresses  wound, 
And  pure-lipped  kisses,  for  the  only  love 
Of  glory,  yields :  The  Berserker.2  who  scorn 
Armor,  and  armed,  contemning  coward  herds 
Hid  under  shields,  and  crippling  from  afar 
The  fair  athletic  limb  with  treacherous  dint 
Of  foreign  substance,  hardened  wood  or  steel — 
Crouch  naked  and  apart,  and  tear  their  food 
Untouched  by  fire,  and  drain  the  brimfull  skulls 
Of  giants,  while  their  insolent  wild  scorn 
For  Odin's  self,  and  for  the  thunderer  Thor, 
The  danger  of  his  hammer  scarce  restrains. 
Beneath  the  board  huge  wolves,  like  house  dogs,  slink, 
Whose  hunger  glares,  alike,  on  feast  and  guests ; 
And  haunting  ravens  flit  above,  with  song 
Dissonant ;  or  the  dusky  favorites  perch, 
And  wing  the  foodfull  hand  imbrued  with  war. 

Then  rise  the  throng  with  frowns,  who  late  like  friends 
Sat  side  by  side,  and  spoke  each  other's  praise, 
And  to  the  field  rush  stormful ;  where  each  day 
The  Valkyrior  choose  the  brave,  and  to  the  rest 
Leave  widowhood.     Yet  oft  to  him  that  falls 


120  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

Comes  the  impartial  maid,  as  when  at  first 
She  marked  his  red  cheek  in  the  pallid  field : 
Who  as  he  fell — stooping  with  arms  dispread 
Under  her  smiling  locks  of  shadowy  gold 
Down  from  her  checked,  ethereal,  snowy  steed — 
Beheld  her,  and  forgot  defeat  and  shame ; 
Nor  heard  the  taunts  of  his  too  numerous  foe 
The  dying  warrior,  on  whom  Glory's  self, 
Incarnate,  seemed  to  smile,  and  bend  her  rays. 

Now,  on  his  broad-winged  sandals,  to  this  bourne 
Of  souls  heroic,  Perseus,  from  the  bow 
Of  their  great  purpose  sent  who  ruled  his  speed, 
Came  like  an  arrow ;  nor  once  paused  in  all 
His  spacious  flight,  till  far  pursued,  as  when 
A  ship  from  the  equatorial — through  half 
The  heavenly — circle,  down  the  polar  sky 
Sails  till  she  hits  the  impenetrable  cold. 
At  length  his  swift  feet  stayed  upon  the  edge 
Of  the  steep  gulf  Gringungagap,  that  yawns 
From  shore  to  shore,  as  wide  as  that  which  laves 
Swart  Afrio's  forehead,  and  the  pillared  feet 
Of  Europe,  her  pale  sister,  on  each  hand. 
No  element,  however,  that  which  parts 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  121 

Bleak  Niffelheim  from  Muspelheim  contained,3 
For  oared  or  wafted  way,  with  transport  large, 
Like  that  which  from  old  Carthage  to  the  wall 
Of  Roman  empire,  and  to  Afric  back, 
Defeating  and  defeated  nations  bore ; 
But  in  its  stead  a  void  and  dismal  depth, 
Whose  dumb  abyss  afflicted  more  the  ear 
Than  that  when  roars,  with  side-redoubled  sound, 
The  inwashing  sea  'gainst  Calpe's  windy  stroke. 
No  other  means  of  passage  here  appeared. 
Than  a  faint  rainbow,  that,  by  what  dim  light 
Strays  hither  from  the  earth,  upon  an  arch 
Of  mist,  foundationless,  stands  built,  and  spans 
The  dreadful  space.     Still  he  who  boldly  treads 
Will  find  it  firm,  but  with  one  fear  he  sinks 
Into  the  steep  vacuity,  unstayed 
By  foot  or  grasping  hand.     Let  him  who  knows 
What  glory  is,  bethink  him  if  his  feet 
Have  not  o'erpassed  this  bridge,  in  Sagas  called 
Bifrost,  that  leads  to  the  abode  of  gods. 
O'er  this,  as  on  a  solid  arc  of  rock, 
Or  mortised  timber  firm,  undaunted  strode 
The  mighty  courier  ;  and  before  him  found, 
6 


122  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

Upon  the  farther  coast,  a  barrier  huge 

Of  icy  mountains,  upon  either  side 

Stretched  like  a  sheer  precipitous  wall,  whose  top 

Rose  inaccessible  to  sight.     But  he 

Like  wind  or  flame,  aloft,  unbaffled,  sprang ; 

And,  like  an  eagle  on  a  mountain's  side, 

Upright  ascended,  with  ethereal  step 

Scaling  the  dizzy  steep  :  availed  him  then 

The  winged  gift  compelled,  for  their  one  eye 

And  single  tooth,  from  Ceto's  hoary  brood. 

Now  on  the  breathless  peak  he  stood,  and  cast 
On  all  sides  round  his  armed  image  down, 
That  from  the  icy  cliffs  gleamed  out  infract. 
And  far  across  a  plain,  and  o'er  wide  seas, 
And  deep-sunk  vales  in  which  the  glassy  mist 
Stood  undistinguishable  from  lake  or  sea, 
In  the  inferior  horizon,  he  beheld 
The  top  of  huge  Yalaskialf  and  the  tower 
Of  godlike  Odin  ;  that,  far-off,  appeared 
A  natural  mountain,  overshaped  by  art. 
Soon  on  that  side,  precipitant,  like  a  star, 
Or  meteor,  he  fell  from  peak  to  peak 
Just  touched  with  winged  and  scarce  alighting  feet, 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  123 

And  reached  the  level  vale  ;  through  which  so  swift 

Half  ran,  half  flew  the  wing-dight,  glorious  child 

Of  golden  Jove,  the  mist  on  the  cold  air 

Blown  from  his  nostrils — and  that  half  concealed 

His  burnished  armor,  and  the  nymph's  clear  gift, 

The  sun-forged  helm  whose  day-like  beams  could  make 

Invisible  whoever  wore  it,  at  his  will — 

Behind  him  shone  in  the  clear  ether,  stained 

By  his  irradiant  voyage,  like  the  wake 

Of  a  swift  orient  ship  when  it  seems  one 

With  that  of  the  great  sun,  that  sinks  astern. 

At  length  Valaskialf's  gates  and  solemn  porch 
Stood  wide  and  deep  before  him,  only  kept 
By  Cerbercan  Fenris,  who,  too  late, 
Uproused  his  gaunt  and  monstrous  corpse  to  bay 
The  foreign  step.     Before  the  snaky  head 
By  the  intruding  Gorgophont  displayed, 
Fixed  stood  the  stony  glare  in  his  wide  eyes, 
The  huge  portcullis  of  his  craggy  jaw 
Stood  open,  and  the  warning  howl,  unheard, 
Still  swelled  his  rigid  throat.     So  on  he  passed 
And  in  Valhalla  at  the  banquet  stood 
Unseen,  beneath  the  wondrous  helm,  by  eye 


124  CHRIST      IN     HADES. 

Of  any  god  ;  who  wondered  not  the  less 

At  the  fixed  stare,  and  long,  affrighted  howl 

Of  spectral  ban- wolf,  and  the  ominous  croak 

Of  wheeling  ravens,  with  the  instant  scream 

Of  joyful  vultures  from  their  bannered  perch 

Along  the  wall.     Then  runic  Bragur,  moved 

With  frenzied  portent,  loosed  his  robes  and  hair, 

And  to  his  shrieking  harp  loud  raved  the  song 

Of  Ragnarok,4  oft  heard  in  Odin's  hall 

With  imitative  din.     Profuse  of  death 

The  rune,  sung  with  a  battle's  sound,  and  shrill 

With  desolation,  fit  to  please  the  ear 

Of  dreaming  horror :  and  its  theme  the  great 

And  final  war  in  which  all  gods  and  men, 

And  beasts,  and  giants  join  ;  till  in  the  end 

The  gloomy  Surtur  from  the  heart  of  night, 

To  their  destruction  by  Alfader  doomed, 

Leaps,   armed  with   flames,  and  burns  the  day's  clear 

light, 
And  stars,  and  sun,  and  earth  and  heaven  away. 

Came  to  the  fearful  strain  as  fearful  pause, 
And,  at  the  moment,  the  all-golden  child 
Of  Danae  from  his  mystery  flashed  out 


CHRIST      1  ft      HADEri.  125 

Upon  their  wonder  ;  fair  as  Mars  he  towered. 

Thus  godlike  tall,  and  terrible  in  arms. 

Amazed  the  winking  giants  sat,  and  scarce 

The  clear  sheen  of  his  complete  mail  could  bear, 

And  dazzling,  sunny  crest ;  each,  meantime,  drew 

The  breath  through  his  stretched  nostrils  back 

Into  his  breast,  distended  with  affright ; 

Irresolute  all,  if  they  at  once  should  fall 

And  worship,  or  strike  dead  the  intruding  guest : 

Who  spake — well  guarded  between  sight  and  sound, 

Bright  apparition  and  smooth  speech,  to  leave 

No  interval.     "  I  come  to  lead  you,  gods, 

To  Ragnarok :  no  more  the  mimic  war 

Ye  need  to  wage ;  now  real  danger  sounds 

To  utterance  of  conflict,  and  the  last 

Occasion  now  of  glorious  strife,  soon  past, 

Trumpets  the  universe  to  arms.     The  field 

Awaits  you  where  the  Jotuns  join  their  powers 

Against  our  race,  and  Surtur  sits  aloof, 

But  doubt  not  shall  avenge  us,  when  the  blow 

Of  God  Alfader  breaks  the  chain  of  fate." 

At  this,  like  magic  scene,  throughout  the  hall, 
At  once,  the  crowded  banquet  to  a  host 


126  CHRIST     IN    HA  DBS. 

Of  warriors  turned.     He  from  his  side  forth  drew 
His  adamantine  sword,  a  beam  of  day 
Tempered  in  deepest  night,  and  waved  them  forth : 
And  from  the  towered  and  ample  port,  whose  height 
They  threatened  with  their  stature,  crowd  on  crowd, 
In  thousands  on  thousands,  rolled,  as  from  a  bay 
Returning,  when,  at  once,  the  land  wind  blows 
And  tide  makes  out,  the  many-murmured  sea 
Gluts  through  a  gulf,  pressed  by  the  storm  behind. 


A  smoother  way,  though  in  attempt  and  aim 

Of  equal  enterprise,  the  wandering  chief 

Of  Sals  found,  than  tasked  the  bright  and  swift 

Son  of  the  golden  rape  ;  yet  passed  a  wide, 

Abrupt,  and  dismal  interval  of  life 

In  man,  or  plant,  or  reptile,  which  itself 

Had  seemed  fraternal  in  that  total  death, 

And  solitude  without  an  eremite 

To  feel  it  solitary.     On  he  fared 

O'er  plains  like  great  Sahara,  only  marked 

And  measured  by  the  sky,  but  more  immense 

And  sea-like  smooth  and  drear ;  and  seas  o'erpassed 


CHRIST      IN      H  A  D  E  8  .  1 27 

Like  that  which  rots  without  a  breaking  wave 

Upon  its  desert^  shore,  and  spreads  above 

Ingulfed  Pentapolis,  but  rolls  not  out. 

Nor  in,  at  all  her  gates  ;  with  patient  feet 

Ascended  mountains  self-revealed,  whose  tops 

Burned,  from  their  base,  like  stars  at  distant  heights 

In  the  immense  of  gloom ;  then  under  earth, 

Through  caverns  within  caverns  wound  his  way 

In  close  ravines,  across  the  gloomy  roar 

Of  subterranean  waters,  and  deep  gulfs 

That  yawned  immeasurable ;  his  only  guide 

Down  these  sunk  mountains,  and  inverted  heights, 

The  star  that  crowned  his  forehead,  and  inwove 

His  sable  locks  with  gold,  and  flushed  his  eyes; 

Replete  with  eager  fire.     At  length  emerged 

Into  an  ample  region  in  the  main 

And  common  cavern  of  that  lower  world, 

He  sees  what  distant  seemed  like  hills,  and  rocks 

That  fragmentary  lie,  confusedly  heaped 

Where  left  by  some  great  deluge  or  of  sea 

Or  sliding  earth,  with  thundering  glaciers  borne 

From  higher  regions,  and  whose  awful  shapes 

Hint  of  old  worship,  fabling  to  the  eye 


128  CHRIST     IN      HADES. 

As  if  for  sacrifice  by  giants  piled. 

Instant  he  lingered, — and  breathed,  half  aloud, 

The  Titans  !  but  none  moved :  some  on  the  arm 

Leaned  far,  with  head  depressed,  or  raised  ;  some  lay 

Recumbent,  and  half  buried,  where  the  soil 

Had  grown  around  them  and  the  frequent  rain 

Of  fire  and  ashes  strown  the  unmoving  bulk, 

Incrusted,  that  it  almost  seemed  a  mound 

Grotesque  with  human  shape.     With  noiseless  awe 

The  ambassador  advanced,  as  if  to  rouse 

Them  loth,  though  for  that  purpose  sought  ; 

And,  nearer  now,  the  bright  surmounting  star. 

That  lamped  his  wondering  eyes  and  wary  feet, 

Bronzed  with  its  light  archaic,  wondrous  shapes, 

Things  fabulous-vast  and  rude,  that  nature  seemed 

Striving  itself  to  art,  in  head  or  group 

Of  half  formed  sculpture  struggling  from  the  rock, 

Or  art  Memnonian,  to  nature  turned 

In  gradual  process,  broken  and  deformed 

Under  the  noiseless  hammer  of  strong  Time : 

These,  near,  with  human  shadows  broke  his  gleam  ; 

And  others,  in  the  distance,  half  revealed, 

Lay  undefined,  like  fragments  of  the  night 


CHRIST     IN      HADES.  129 

With  which  the  path  of  morning  is  forewrit. 

None  looked,  or  turned,  or  deigned  to  mark  who  came 

With  unaccustomed  light ;  nor  might  his  look 

Have  awed  them  into  audience  if  seen, 

Though,  as  he  stood  to  gaze,  his  measure  seemed 

A  cedar's  shadow  in  the  evening  sun. 

But  soon  thus  proemed  his  Egyptian  tongue  : 

"  0  wonder  never  raised  by  gods  or  men  ! 
And  see  I  then  the  more  than  men  or  gods, 
Of  that  old  world  the  citizens,  here  doomed 
To  this  inert  yet  glorious  rest  of  power 
Deemed  dangerous  to  Destiny  itself? 
The  creatures  of  a  greater  time,  and  doom 
Proportioned  J  less  than  your  once  selves,  yet  oh, 
How  greater  than  the  greatest  of  our  world  ! 
I  from  the  later  born  of  our  one  race, 
And  common  mother,  Earth,  have  hither  sped 
Ambassador,  in  their  need  against  the  power 
Of  ruined — not  ruling — gods,  to  seek  your  aid, 
Sought  now,  rest  sure,  where  Destiny  not  fears 
Your,  but  for  her,  omnipotent  avail." 

At  this  Hyperion  roused  himself,  and  ope'd 
His  sunless  eyes,  assaying  sight  of  whom 
fi* 


130  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

He  thus  bespoke.     "Art  thou  from  earth,  0  voice? 
Then  tell  me  if  the  sun  still  rolls  through  heaven : 
An  age,  old  with  more  ages,  and  I  saw  him  not ; 
Nor  his  translucent  ray  has  washed  these  orbs 
"With  dewy  light,  and  purged  their  thickening  gloom 
And  fear  has  much  possessed  me  that  he  conies, 
'Mid  his  long  journey  sunk  in  age  or  sleep, 
From  Ocean's  doors  no  more,  nor  comes  the  moon, 
That  in  his  shadow  walks,  nor  banded  stars." 

"  I  come  not  from  the  earth,"  the  voice  returned, 
''  Yet  doubt  not  that  her  green  demesne  is  still 
The  journey  of  the  sun, — but  from  the  heart 
Of  this  Tartarean  deep,  where  gods  with  men, 
Or  gods  with  gods  more  truly,  wage  once  more 
The  ancient  war :  but  weaker  now  the  foe, 
We  stronger  far ;  yet  not  too  strong  to  ask 
The  aid  of  your  great  potency — for  right. 
We  also  for  a  fallen  Saturn  fight, 
And  his  old  cause,  against  revolted  sons ; 
Whom,  for  more  shame,  he  finds  in  his  defeat 
Unfaithful ;  though  his  first  dethronement  found, 
With  that  Hesperian  Saturn,  no  sweet  isle 
Beyond  the  ocean,  where  soft  nymphs  support 


CHRIST     IN      HADES.  131 

His  hoary  head,  loosed  from  its  golden  load. 
And  bed  him  in  their  bosoms,  in  his  ear 
Whispering  the  while  old  tales  that  make  him  dream 
Himself  still  master  of  the  earth  and  air." 

This  heard  Prometheus,  where  he  lay  supreme 
Upon  his  rock,  from  which  a  tree,  of  those 
Unsightly  roots  that  rude  and  sparsely  grow, 
But  never  verdurous,  in  that  clime,  had  forced 
Its  tough  gnarled  bole  and  split  the  stone  ; 
As  if  from  his  indomitable  life. 
One  nature  in  the  rock  and  him,  it  grew, 
Fed  by  the  excess  and  bounty  of  his  strength. 
And  thus  he  spake,  but  took  no  greater  heed 
Of  any  presence  there,  than  if  the  voice 
Had  fallen  from  the  air,  or  out  of  heaven. 

"  Who  speaks  of  war  to  us  !  who  have  subdued 
All  strength  in  armies  lodged,  or  single  arm, 
Omnipotence  himself  have  dared,  and  chained 
With  his  own  chain — thege  bands  that  bind  us  fast  j 
And  by  existence  here  in  this  dark  pit 
And  closet  of  the  earth,  still  check  his  power, 
Limit  his  infinite,  and  imprison  Jove 
In  his  imperial  domain.     To  act — 


x. 


132  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

Strong  should  he  be  who  acts,  or  weak,  advanced, 

Or  overthrown — is  weakness,  and  shows  need. 

But  he  is  strong  who  with  Omnipotence 

Or  wills  without  constraint,  or  else  defies, — 

And  I  defy.     Then  let  the  eternal  power 

That  knits  the  universe  with  his  strength,  and  feels 

It  through,  and  wields  it  as  one  moves  his  limbs, 

Hurl  himself  on  me,  I  stir  not  this  arm, 

Yet  in  the  end  shall  conquer :  let  him  break 

His  aggregated  thunders,  storm  on  storm. 

Through  deafened  ages,  till  he  lose,  at  last, 

The  reckoning  of  his  blows,  it  is  to  me 

But  one  concussion,  heard,  not  felt,  or  felt, 

Unpained ;  for  I  am  all  one  thought,  one  will, 

And  that  is  to  defy."     He  spake,  like  one 

Silent  thenceforth,  and  all  the  Titans  groaned 

A  stern  response,  as  at  the  skiey  fall 

Of  region-thunder  neighbored  mountains  raise 

A  deep  and  sullen  clamor,  long  prolonged. 

Yet  the  sage  emissary  to  despair 
Gave  not  his  purpose,  but  inspired  to  act, 
Unconscious  whence  the  courage  came  or  thought 
For  such  adventure,  instantly  advanced 


I      II     I!     I    |     I          I    \         II    A    II    If  0   .  \   •'•'•'> 

To  the  //real   ather-t.  and    with   hi*  :-l:ili 
Oaducean.  charmed,  unlinked  lii.s  r-|i:iin,  and  freed 
'I'ln-    de.-pin;'  f'M-cc  of  hinewy  neck  ;md  limb. 
Awhile  with  th<-     trungc  motion  of  free  power, 
Ke«torcd  from  HO  long  lap:-:e  that  it,  ;-;eem«-d  pven. 
And   |,;i--:-ion:ili:  incipience  (,f   !.!n,ii;rlil. 
AH  to  wh;it,  mi-Hit,  j,roce<-d  (,f  t,h:it,  ^re;it  j/ift, 
\\  .  ;.k  an  the  unb rent  lied  y<-anlin^  of  :in  hour 
Fato'M  aged  rebel  and  JOVC'H  tyrant  lay. 
Then.  UH  the    ca  r«  tires  and  for  a  Hpaco 

LeaVCH  wliere  he  |.-;,n,:<|   upon  the  //uliy  coaHt 

II       ''aveniH  void,  and  tin:  emerged  rocks  in  air, 

Inflowing  on  his  HtepH, — anon  ho  roarH 

Up  from  the  dangerouM  main  againHt  the  hi#h. 

PercuHHcd,  resounding,  limitary  nhore, — 

So  rOic  the  Titan,  and  hin  Htru^gling  armn 

M<led  in  the  air,  :i »  if  he  hou;'hl, 
The  power  who  on  his  impioui»  htren^th  had  lixed 
With  unrelenting  hand  the  band  of  law, 
IndiHHolute,  though  a  world  gn-w  old  the  while; 

M«  :ilitilii«-    the   <  -;n  •  «d'   Hell    ingulfed    tlieHU   Wold-. 
••  O  Jove  '    and  do   I    fed   the,.  yi<  I<1  at  l<-n;'lh. 

And  tempt  me  to  be  God?  yet  tempt  in  vain ! 


134  CHRIST     IN      HADES. 

No  !  though  the  universe  besides  should  feel 
Unworth  and  misery,  and  for  that  cause 
Be  seized  with  instant  longing  to  rush  back 
Into  thy  bosom,  I  remain,  and  I 
Deny  thy  greatness,  greater  in  myself. 
Yet  should  it  be  of  fate  and  not  of  thee 
That  I  am  loosed  this  chain,  but  for  her  power 
Not  worn  ;  0  thou,  who  hast  with  me  so  long 
Parleyed  in  thunder,  and  with  lightning  fought 
'Gainst  the  impregnable  fort  of  my  disdain, 
Then  shall  I  see  if  thou  with  change  of  place 
Shalt  conquer  me,  as  I  have  thee  o'erthrown, 
Though  with  all  gods,  and  earth,  and  heaven  to  aid." 

Then  old  lapetus,  of  his  stern  son 
Impatient,  and  his  long  inactive  scorn, 
Upheaved  his  gray  paternal  head  and  rose, 
And  cited  their  despair  to  answer  hope 
In  words  like  these.     "  0  brethren  bound 
In  these  afflictions,  shall  we  wake,  or  sleep 
For  ever  ?  rather  should  I  not  say  die  ! 
Here  stretched  until  we  turn  again  to  earth, 
Our  mother,  as  they  tell,  to  whose  dark  womb, 
Meseems,  we  have  returned  to  find  our  grave  ; 


CHRIST     IN     UADE3.  135 

Or  living,  do  but  live  as  parts  of  her, 
And  she  but  live  in  us,  as  in  these  rocks. 
Not  without  stern  endeavor  shall  we  climb 
To  heaven,  and  the  stores  of  thunder  reach, 
That  give  us  mastery,  though,  as  ye  have  heard, 
Our  right  at  length  sinks  the  fixed  beam  of  fate. 
Which  way  first  opens,  there  success  will  prove 
This  change  in  fortune,  or  in  time  prevent 
Our  worse  defeat:  therefore  this  herald  star. 
Whose  human,  pleasing  voice  has  filled  the  ear 
Of  dateless  silence  here  with  sound,  whose  theme 
Is  life  and  strength  in  arms,  and  vital  stir 
Beyond  this  tideless  realm,  all  they  will  rise 
And  follow,  who  henceforth  companion  me." 

He  spake  ;  and  at  the  sound,  as  when  that  famed 
And  wondering  traveller  a  great  city  saw 
Turned  into  stone,  and  all  the  peopled  streets 
Made  marble,  nearer  life  than  pillared  groups 
In  sculptured  Memphis  or  great  Athens  set, — 
Noble  and  merchant,  citizen  and  slave 
Stand  statue-like,  with  rigid  hand,  that  grasps 
The  stiffened  mane,  the  warrior,  prompt  to  mount 
A  reined  equestrian  shapely  rock,  that  shows 


136  CHRIST     IN      HADES. 

The  stony  foam  in  his  wide  nostrils,  curved 
By  his  long-parted  breath,  but  uncollapsed, — 
What  time  a  disenchanting  trumpet  blows, 
The  warrior  mounts,  the  steed  with  fiery  hoof 
Kesilient  starts,  the  crowd  throng  in  and  out, 
And  all  the  city  thunders  with  the  burst 
Of  instantaneous  motion, — or  if  where 
Great  Arthur  and  his  champions  around 
Sit  on  their  dreaming  steeds  in  warlike  muse, 
Sage  Merlin's  wand,  unburied  to  restore 
To  British  chivalry  its  strength  and  flower, 
Should  split  their  viewless  prison,  forth  they  start 
With  levelled  spears,  but  find  no  giants  now, 
Themselves  grown  giants  to  their  dwindled  race, — 
Like  these,  or  those — weak  figures  both  to  express 
Such  magnitudes — up  from  their  wearied  couch 
The  ease-tired  Titans  rose  ;  but  with  a  sound 
As  when  an  earthquake,  from  the  centre,  tears 
'Grainst  its  circumferent  motion  through  the  earth, 
And  for  an  instant  checks  its  solid  wheel ; 
That  shakes  down  cities  with  the  sudden  pause. 


BOOK    VII. 


BOOK  VII. 

O  Spirit  of  sweet  Song,  and  child  of  Heaven, 

Miraculous  Music  !  who  upon  thy  string 

Hast  caught,  and,  more  subliming,  poured  the  noise 

Of  bursting  thunder,  and  the  ocean's  wild, 

Vast  monotone,  and  the  shriek  of  hovering  winds ; 

And,  of  slight  instrument  dost  with  a  touch 

Give  to  our  ears  the  sempiternal  chime 

Of  heavens  through  heavens  revolving,  I  full  oft 

Have  heard  thee  and  rejoiced.     But  thou,  stern  harp, 

^Eolian,  golden,  of  heroic  fame, 

Through  which  the  airy  spirits  of  the  dead 

Move  viewless,  and  for  ever  breathe  like  winds 

The  Manes  of  the  great !  for  other  sound, 

Who,  with  profaner  hand,  shall  tune  thy  strings, 

Tense  with  the  touch  of  Homer,  and  to  fame 

Revived,  his  haply  listening  heroes  bid, 


140  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

Though  in  a  darker  state,  appear  in  arms  ? 
Yet  thou,  deemed  dead,  immortal-young  and  fair, 
Divine  Calliope — where  in  some  cave 
By  old  Scamander,  or  the  yellow  wave 
Of  Tiber,  sitting,  hushed  in  marble  trance 
Of  statue  pale,  or  thy  own  shadow  hid — 
Shalt  hear  my  early  strain,  and  lest  the  attempt 
Jar  on  thy  golden  dream,  thyself  with  touch 
Of  many-memoried  fingers  aid  the  song. 

Might  creatures  be  called  happy,  the  dark  stream 
Of  whose  existence  from  the  only  source 
Of  happiness  is  cut  off,  such  might  be  deemed 
The  earth-sprung  powers  in  hell's  begun  campaign, 
Plumed  with  sucli  desperate  fortune,  and  their  state 
Of  sullen  passion  into  action  changed, 
And  busy  hope  and  fear ;  the  tideless  bay, 
Their  solitary  port,  that  to  the  main 
Of  being  heaved  no  wave,  uproused  once  more, 
And  swelling  with  the  self-same  tides  of  power 
And  sympathy,  that  move  both  earth  and  heaven. 
They  all  who  toiled,  or  idled  in  the  camp,. 
Drew  from  the  fresh  and  glowing  breeze  of  life 
A  seeming  health,  and  to  their  aspect  pale 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  141 

Apparent  bloom  in  cheek  and  lip,  and  fire 

And  sparkle  in  the  eye.     Some  their  new  powers 

Tried  on  the  elements,  to  invent  strange  arms, 

Missiles  that  on  their  object  should  beget 

New  weapons,  wounding  wide,  or  in  the  air 

Burst  horrible,  and  fall  with  showers  of  fire. 

Yet  here  but  little  used,  nigh  useless  made, 

Where  swifter  means  and  motion  stead,  and  weights 

Thrown  irresistible  by  a  living  arm. 

Others  defensive  armor  wrought,  to  fit 

All  movements,  welted  firm,  and  closed  to  search 

Of  tempered  weapons,  or  the  subtle  wound 

And  venom  of  insinuating  fire. 

And  beings  now  of  female  form  appeared, 
But  haggard  beauty,  to  their  former  selves 
Such  as  the  day-paled  moon,  by  early  men 
Distinguished  from  a  cloud :  and  still  their  eyes 
Gave  light  to  their  wan  beauties,  and  seemed  stars 
Wandered  from  heaven,  or  such  as  hear  the  knell 
Of  fading  night,  with  twofold  service  loud, 
Rung  by  the  shrilly  summoner  of  morn  : 
Nor  did  their  womanhood  make  hell  more  fair, 
Nor  its  harsh  gloom  might  mitigate  for  man : 


142  CHRIST      IN      HADE8. 

Their  sole  employ,  before  this  warlike  stir, 
Seated  apart,  to  mourn,  and  like  unseen, 
Transfigured  Progne,  grieve  out  all  their  night 
With  tales  of  treacherous  love  in  life  long  past, 
And  go  through  all  the  story  of  the  world, 
And  all  their  scorns  and  loves,  here  turned  to  hate 
If  lust,  indifference  if  love.     But  now 
Familiar  war  with  pleasing  dread  subdued, 
And  glorious  lure  of  famed  heroic  strength 
Attracted  these  stern  dames  again  to  mix 
With  hated  men.     Nor  did  they  want  some  sense 
Of  old  association  in  their  sex 
With  warlike  feats  on  earth,  by  them  admired, 
For  them  achieved.     Mycaena's  rugged  queen, 
Frowned  back  by  stern  .ZEgisthus,  turned 
To  Agamemnon,  who  turned  not,  nor  met 
Her  eyes,  but  with  his  own,  amidst  the  crowd, 
Sought  Iphigenia.     Helen  armed  the  pale 
Priamides,  to  whom  the  presence  there 
Of  great  Achilles  was  more  sad  than  hell. 
Electra  to  Orestes  half  gave  heed, 
Half  to  Pylades,  and  the  manly  queen 
Penthesilea  on  Achilles  gazed, 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  143 

And  marked  the  hand  that  wounded,  and  the  eye 

That  other  wounds  might  make  and  heal :  and  midst, 

Sat,  in  a  hushed  and  unintruded  space, 

Eternal  Homer,  and  his  thousand-toned 

Continuous  harp,  to  that  immortal  tale 

Of  Troy  subverted,  and  the  adventured  way 

Of  gray  Ulysses,  rung  with  sounds  that  awed 

More  than  Dictsean  thunder  ;  and  which  drew 

To  that  dim  deep  the  all-illumined  shape 

Of  glory  down  from  heaven :  Achilles  smiled, 

The  Atridae,  and  grand  Ajax,  his  self-judge 

And  executioner,  smiled  each  to  see 

His  virtues  and  the  faults,  his  virtue's  best 

And  best  loved  flatterers,  distinct  alike, 

In  the  just  mirror  of  his  Jove-like  thought 

Reflected ;  and  more  wondered  to  perceive 

Himself  made  greater  to  himself,  and  deeds 

Heroic,  and  armed  fortitude  admired 

More  in  rehearsal  than  in  conscious  act. 

Which  to  repeat,  indeed,  full  soon  they  met 
An  unexpected  summons.     For  the  Northern  powers, 
Advanced  far  as  to  the  aspect  of  armed  men, 
Reckless,  and  blinded  to  the  swift  affront 


144  CHRIST     IN      HADES. 

Of  their  bright  leader,  and  remonstrance  loud 
To  their  mistaken  fury,  with  unchecked, 
Headlong  proclivity  to  whatever  seemed 
To  promise  their  sole  joy,  upon  them  fell, 
Unsignalled,  as  a  self-loosed  weight  of  snow 
Tears  down  some  Alpine  summit  to  the  vale. 
But  like  a  torrent  they,  or  like  a  sea, 
Received  it,  and  up-foamed,  with  wasteful  roar 
Swallowing  its  ingulfed  wrath,  and  melted  soon 
The  fractured  and  dissevered  mass  of  power. 

Perseus  first  himself,  withstanding,  met 
The  immediate  onset,  overborne  by  Thor, 
And  backward  thrown  upon  his  empty  hands, 
With  head  and  feet  bent  under,  and  each  link 
Of  his  Hephestian  armor  rent  from  each  ; 
That  anvil  for  his  stroke  he  seemed,  whose  sledge 
Stayed  not  ascent  with  gain  of  gathered  force ; 
But  ere  contrary  hurled,  it  hung  in  poise, 
While  Thor  glared  up  and  down  and  saw  but  air, 
So  swift  his  foe  escaped.     But  better  matched, 
Achilles  of  the  sworded  Odin -stood 
The  fierce  encounter.     Yet  they  lingered  both 
Awhile,  and  gazed,  and  each  admired  and  praised 


CHRIST     IN     HADES.  145 

The  other  for  a  god.     So  when  a  bull 

That  through  the  wild  his  vanquished  kind  pursues, 

Or  hunts  the  wide-mouthed  bay  of  wounded  dogs, 

His  hunters  erst,  by  chance  a  lion  sees, 

With  lowered  horn  he  stares ;  the  bestial  king 

Struck  with  his  aspect,  imitating,  glares 

"With  large  recumbent  head  and  glowing  eyes, 

His  shaggy  strength  reposed  upon  his  loins, 

Thrown  back  and  bent  to  spring.     And  soon  uproused 

The  Achaean  lion,  but  at  distance  first 

Put. forth  his  strength  ;  and  from  his  hand  a  spear 

Sprang  effortless,  like  lightning  from  the  arm 

Of  alway-tranquil  Jove — with  aim  as  sure, — 

But  from  the  tempered  barrier  which  the  arm 

Of  Odin  raised,  glanced  downward  and  struck  through 

Where  joined  the  ankle  his  supporting  foot ; 

Who  forward  fell,  but  with  directed  force 

Threw  all  his  height  into  one  blow,  heaved  high, 

And  far  descending,  and  the  steely  hand 

Cleft  from  the  wielding  arm  of  Thetis'  son, 

Deemed  woundless,  but  in  vain  baptized  in  Styx. 

Amazed  Achilles  stood  with  doubt  and  pain, 
While  Odin  to  his  Vulcan-mated  feet 
7 


146  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

Restored  his  stature.     But,  soon  reproduced, 
The  living  from  the  severed  member  snatched 
The  fallen  sword ;  and  now  his  two-edged  grasp 
Each  plies,  nor  in  the  dazzled  space  between 
Leaves  interval ;  and  shrilling  winds  rush  forth, 
With  momentary  swiftness,  from  the  sway 
Of  their  immense,  wide-sweeping  falchions,  oft 
With  dreadful  shock  colliding,  and  forced  light, 
That  kissed  the  gloom  at  every  touch  of  steel. 
And  what  would  be  the  end  might  almost  seem 
Doubtful  to  Fate,  where  each  with  so  great  fame 
Stood  forth,  and  ancient  laurels  now  refreshed, 
Or  withered  more  and  rent,  and  strength  so  great 
As  if  the  embodied  West  and  glorious  East 
Full-armed,  in  single  duel  met,  should  try 
Their  past  and  future  quarrel  for  the  world. 
But,  on  the  instant,  now  above  their  heads 
The  darkness  darkened  more,  and  through  the  hosts 
The  tongues  of  wide-loosed  fury  ceased,  at  sounds 
That  ruined  ruin,  with  the  horrid  stun 
Of  falling  rocks,  and  swift  projectiles  hurled, 
Resistless,  from  the  height ;  so,  ere  the  earth, 
Their  solid  roof,  unpillared  by  deep  mines. 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  147 

Down  thunders,  where,  beneath  the  surface,  delve 
Gain's  swarthy  slaves — a  shower  of  loosened  ore 
Foretells  destruction  :  but  still  dreadlier  fell 
War's  deadly  forgery,  spears  and  darts  that  rung 
Like  iron  on  iron  shivered,  where  they  struck 
The  adamant  field,  rebounding,  or  pierced  through 
Armor  and  armed,  pinned  to  the  fissured  rock, 
Inextricably,  or  where  crushed  between 
Nether  and  upper  flint,  shield  worse  than  wounds, 
They  lay  afflicted  with  the  dint  that  fell 
Thick  as  falls  hail,  when,  in  the  dropping  year, 
To  rocky  Sipylus  bearded  Winter  climbs, 
And  marbles  with  his  look  the  ceaseless  tears 
Of  the  invisible  Niobe  of  the  air. 

As  when  a  wind  upon  the  sea  descends, 
And  hurls  himself  along,  and  holds  his  foe 
Beneath,  who  leaps  against  him  in  mad  waves, 
If  rain  pours  down  with  thunder,  they  their  strife 
Both  cease  with  mingled  moan  and  dash,  and  flood 
Drowns  flood  and  wind — these  in  mid-tempest  stood 
Becalmed,  and  suffered  storm.     But  impious  Cain 
From  where  he  lay,  with  hands  and  feet  transfixed, 
Crucified  on  a  rock,  supine,  thus  loud 


148  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

Blasphemed.     "  Jehovah,  or  whatever  power, 

Hidden  in  gloom,  exhausts  his  store  of  ills — 

Armed  coward,  great,  in  accidents  !  who  vaunts? 

Of  goodness,  and  the  original  pretends 

Himself  of  soul  and  spirit,  with  discourse 

Of  holiness  and  justice,  but  brute  strength 

Employs  against  us  still ;  think  not  defeat 

Follows  assault  though  unresisted  found. 

Pile  earth  and  heaven  upon  these  fettered  limbs, 

And  me  to  ruin,  thy  creation  make 

One  ruin,  and  thyself  thereon  sit  throned, 

And  I  stretched  under ;  I  am  still  as  far 

Above  thee.  and  my  unimprisoned  soul, 

Untouched,  and  free  from  chains,  on  all  sides  space 

Smiles  out  upon  thee  in  disdain.     In  arms 

Strong  I  believe  thee  r  author  of  a  strength 

Greater  than  found  in  thee,  the  will  and  power 

That  in  himself  he  finds  to  be  unpraised 

Yet  just, — good,  yet  not  hourly  kneed  and  sung 

By  angels,  nor  reflected  in  their  smiles, 

Who,  though  thus  crushed,  can  deem  ?  or  who  believe 

Thy  nature  could  produce  aught  to  oppose 

And  hate  it,  foreign  to  itself,  and  doomed 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  149 

Therefore  to  punishment  ?     Or,  if  thy  pride 

Must  claim  our  origin, — as  misbegot 

Unnatural  offspring,  why  not  then  destroy 

Thy  alien  creatures,  and  the  ill-tuned  harp 

New  string,  harmonious  with  perfect  praise  ? 

They  nought  so  much  desire  ;  and  to  unmake 

At  least  might  prove  thee  maker,  which  till  then 

Whate'er  thy  power  contingent,  or  by  fate, 

Or  elder  birth  bestowed,  and  kept,  once  gained, 

By  cunning,  and  made  sacred  with  the  awe 

Of  forged  religion,  I  shall  dare  to  doubt ; 

Though  with  more  waste  of  thunder  urged  and  noise, 

Thine  ancient  dialectics,  or  enforced 

With  arguments  like  these,  so  apt  at  hand, 

And  potent  to  convince  those  formed  for  pain." 

To  whom  thus  scoffing,  from  .the  gloom  a  voice 
Responded  in  like  vein  :  "  Great  Cain,  our  foe 
And  signal  dread,  but  dangerous  most  to  Heaven  ! 
We  own  the  honor  great,  and  not  unfelt, 
To  be  mistaken  for  all-swaying  Jove  ; 
Nor  does  our  power  proved  on  thee  warrant  less, 
Nor  the  deep  pain  thy  speech  betrays ;  but  yet, 
Sooth  to  confess,  we  only  use.  like  Him, 


150 


CHE  1ST      IN      HADES. 


The  just  prerogative  of  superior  force 

To  afflict  inferior  natures,  without  grant 

Of  privilege  to  retort.     Of  old  indeed, 

We  little  thought,  at  variance  ourselves, 

His  rebels  to  have  punished,  and  much  less 

Reasoned  his  cause :  which  now  I  do  to  show 

Thee  imbecile  in  intellect,  thy  sole  boast, 

As  body,  though  more  obstinate  in  will, 

'Tis  granted,  than  are  some  ;  yet  less  by  far 

Than  many  a  brute,  whose  ignorance,  the  cause 

Of  his  low  fortitude,  had  been  also  less 

Perhaps,  had  he,  like  thee,  for  ages  been 

Academist  in  this  unfettered  school 

Of  intricate  and  dark  theology. 

Learn,  sophist,  that  Jehovah's  right  obtains 

Not  from  his  being  this  or  that,  but  is, 

Because  it  seems,  and  has  the  power 

To  enforce  what  it  pretends,  and  punish  those 

Its  claim  withstanding.     Higher  proof  who  needs  ? 

Or  what  superior  sanction  could  the  fact 

(Though  proved)  of  our  creation  to  his  deeds 

A  fford  ?  or  what  thy  arrogated  proof 

Of  genesis  by  our  destruction  shown  ? 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  151 

Vain  argument !  for  we  ourselves  unmake 
Both  what  we  neither  make,  nor  yet  restore. 
Or  what  propounds  the  imprecated  bolt 
Annihilating — that  but  itself  leaves  nought — 
To  the  annihilated,  and  of  proof 
Made  unintelligent ;  or  if  restored, 
After  what  lapse  of  time,  yet  who  shall  know 
Whether  by  power  extrinsic  or  innate  ?" 

Thus,  to  the  atheist,  the  libertine, 
Dark  Asmod,  subtlest  litigant  for  ill 
In  the  infernal  forum  ;  who  his  foe 
Reviled,  and  with  injurious  defence, 
Alike  derided  Heaven.     But  now  in  him, 
And  in  the  angel-host,  and  those  oppressed 
Beneath  the  advantage  that  their  station  gave, 
Hearing  took  sudden  captive  tongue  and  hand 
And  every  power,  as  all  a  coming  sound 
Discerned,  yet  distant,  indescribable, 
Nor  to  be  told  if  it  was  tread  or  flight, 
Or  under  ground,  or  both  in  earth  and  air ; 
As  when  an  earthquake,  on  its  march  along 
The  Mediterranean  shore,  or  o'er  the  sea 
Submerged  and  sunk  beneath  its  bottom,  comes 


1 52  CHRIST     IN      IIADEB 

By  whirlwinds  trumpeted.     Nor  did  they  doubt, 
Who  heard  the  sound,  that,  for  these  atheist  scoffs, 
God,  as  not  seldom  in  their  impious  den, 
Had  bared  his  terrible  and  still  lurking  hand. 

At  once  for  flight,  the  ethereous  army  formed 
Their  hovering  ranks,  and  on  delayless  wing 
Sought  a  near  mount ;  and  on  its  farther  side 
Descending,  perched,  as  on  a  leeward  cliff 
The  ominous  flocks  of  ocean  wait  the  storm. 


BOOK   VIII. 


7» 


BOOK  VIII. 

IN  earth  above,  on  the  celestial  round 

Open  to  heaven,  and  clad  with  air  and  wave, 

And  on  that  side  of  the  great  polar  stream, 

Where  the  bold  Genoese  touched  the  strand,  till  then 

The  virgin  of  the  sea,  a  marble  stands, 

Whose  shape  by  old  Ilissus  many  a  one 

Might  equal,  none  excel ;  a  fresh  antique, 

Birth  of  the  old  world  and  the  new,  that  shows 

How  Orpheus  at  the  twilight  doors  of  hell, 

Fast  by  lulled  Cerberus,  with  forward  stoop 

And  hand  above  his  patient  brow,  explored 

The  hushed  and  awful  deep.     And  thus,  arrived 

To  where  he  left  of  late  his  numerous  league, 

With  standards  fixed  and  warlike  sheen  and  din, 

To  find  it  silent  now  and  void  and  dim, 

Gazed  Cecrops :  and  the  hindered  Titans  »tood 


156  CHRIST     IN      HADES. 

Expecting  when  his  voice  should  clear  the  cause 
Of  their  delay.     But  nothing  heard  or  saw 
The  infernal  pilot,  whom  conjecture  strange 
Held  dreamy  mute,  and  fixed  on  leaden  foot. 
For  them  dispersed  upon  the  battered  field, 
Like  fear  possessed  of  heavenly  argument 
Proved  perilous  to  the  disputant,  as  those 
Who  brought  their  mischief,  and  on  pinions  fled ; 
And  for  the  passion  of  whatever  ill 
Moved  toward  them,  like  a  storm-predicting  host 
In  deep  Sahara,  these,  from  sight  and  sound 
Self-buried,  lie,  and  wait  the  dismal  wave. 

At  length  he  spake  ;  concealing  what  he  feared. 
That  they  through  paler  after-thought  had  fled, 
Doubting  the  dread  alliance  which  he  brought, 
Of  equal  power  to  injure  as  to  aid. 
"  Or  have  they  gone,  for  whom  I  broke  your  rest, 
0  sons  of  Uranus,  impatient  grown 
To  seek  the  foe,  or  by  a  greater  power 
Dispersed,  without  a  vestige  fled — oh  thought 
Too  sad,  though  but  conjecture,  for  a  dream 
Improbable  ! — I  doubt ;  nor  can  surmise 
Which — or  what  else  befallen  :  but  this  I  know, 


CHRIST     IN      HADES.  157 

That  in  this  dreary  void  I  left  a  host. 

Like  gods  in  strength,  and  men  in  multitude, 

And,  but  by  you,  unmatched  in  earth  or  hell." 

To  whom  attentive  Cain  made  quick  reply. 
"  Fled — even  sight  should  not  convict  the  eye 
Of  one  who  knows  us,  although  welcomed  back 
To  worse  affliction,  than  thy  absence  sought 
With  vain-successful  mission  to  avoid. 
Nor  yet  by  greater  force  you  find  us  fallen, 
But  by  mistake  and  guile,  thanks  to  the  prompt 
And  helpful  malice  of  inveterate  Heaven." 

At  this,  all  they  who  cowered  beneath  the  storm, 
Still  felt,  though  past,  of  their  angelic  foe, 
All  to  whom  hope,  undying,  though  shot  through 
With  every  star's  malignancy,  or  pride, 
Or  curious  inclination  to  behold 
Their  great  allies,  gave  strength,  uprose  and  stood ; 
Some  towering  straight  and  firm,  some  half  upright ; 
And  some  from  deep  gulfs  labored  up,  and  gazed 
On  the  large  brood  of  Ccelus,  whom  their  mate 
Held  with  mute  gesture  and  persuasive  mien 
Adroitly  governed,  yet,  himself. — like  him 
Who  yoked  the  lions,  or  who  first  bestrid 


158  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

The  snorting  steed  for  battle,  on  the  amazed 

Confronted  infantry  seen  moving  swift, 

And  footless,  like  a  god, — half  awed,  half  proud. 

G-yes  and  Cottus  loomed  in  sight,  and  huge 
Briareus  with  a  hundred  folded  hands, 
Typho3us  terrible  with  as  many  heads, 
Each  breathing  storms,  immense  Enceladus, 
Coeus  and  Creus,  female  Themis  stern, 
More  feared  than  loved,  and  pale  Mnemosyne ; 
And,  from  behind,  Hyperion  looked  down, 
Like  his  rebated  orb,  when  half  beneath, 
And  half  above,  he  leans  upon  the  earth, 
And  on  the  shadowy  hills  and  forests  bleak 
That  edge  upon  his  light,  and  the  great  world 
About  to  rise  above  him,  frowning  night 
And  cold  against  his  beam,  casts  down,  from  far, 
One  wide,  last  look  of  majesty  supreme. 

These  to  the  eye  of  Cain  familiar  seemed, 
And  nearer  to  himself,  though  he  with  those 
Of  younger  date,  and  less  affined,  stood  leagued. 
And  now,  erect,  with  hoary  might  redressed, 
And  like  an  earth-fast  oak — that  stronger  seems, 
Its  twisted  fibre  bared,  when  sacred  made 


CHRIST     IN      HADES.  159 

To  vengeance  by  the  unvictimed  bolt  of  Heaven, 
Than  when  its  rooted  strength  and  verdant  tower 
Turned  the  direct  north  wind — -before  them  stood 
Their  Elder,  and  undoubted  paramount. 

But  thoughtful  most  the  seeming  shame  and  loss 
Of  his  confounded  myrmidons  to  retrieve, 
Soon,  at  his  hest,  a  rousing  trumpet  broke 
With  melancholy  clamor  through  the  deep. 
Nor  might  the  chains  of  Erebus,  nor  the  draught, 
Lethean,  of  unmixed  despair,  nor  fear 
Of  Heaven's  thunder,  nor  superior  force 
In  men,  or  gods,  or  elemental  powers, 
Retain  them  idle  at  that  summons  blown : 
But,  to  the  confines  of  the  sight,  the  field 
Uprose,  throughout,  and  armied  all  the  space ; 
Thus,  when  the  swooping  wind  a  pliant  marsh 
Of  osiers  bends  along,  its  wings  o'erpast, 
They  rise  like  one,  and  stand  with  whispering  leaves. 
Nor  did  the  Titans  less  in  these  admire 
Each  splendid  feature,  burnished  shield  emblazed, 
And  silver-seeming  limb,  and  pictured  crest 
With  shading  wings  or  plume,  than  they  in  those 
Their  monstrous  breadth  and  stature,  (for  their  bulk, 


160  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

Whether  on  horizontal  line  it  poised, 
Or  vertical,  seemed  hard  to  tell,)  and  strength 
And  aspect,  as  of  things  in  nature,  hills. 
Or  massy  clouds  in  the  horizon  heaped, 
And  shaped  by  storms,  were  those,  as  these. 
Endued  with  life  and  motion.     But  not  thus 
The  bearded  Asar,  as  they  frowned  apart, 
Or  without  order  started  from  their  fall, 
Saw  the  huge  ancients  ;  and  the  comers  deemed 
The  Jotuns  without  doubt,  spirits  of  fire 
And  aching  frost,  the  native  powers  of  hell ; — 
Part  of  their  myth  unrealized  till  now. 

And  soon  perhaps  the  war  had  sprung  anew 
Between  these  loose  allies,  had  not  again 
The  airy  plague,  returning  with  worse  shock, 
Made  manifest  the  common  foe.     But  now 
The  assailants  hovered  lower,  and  more  near 
The  flight  of  warriors  to  their  quarry  came, 
Like  vultures  stooping  on  a  conquered  field. 
And  some,  with  bolder  fury,  on  the  cast 
Of  spear  and  javelin  following,  sword  in  hand, 
Leaped  down  ;  but  the  main  army  kept  the  air  ; 
And  each  strange  foes,  and  stronger,  finds  to  cope, 


CHRIST     IN      HADES.  161 

And  not  inferior,  though  beneath.     Wide  raged 

Tisiphone  and  her  fateful  sisters,  sprung 

From  parricide,  or  the  monstered  womb  of  Night. 

Their  living  twine,  they  resting,  to  the  ground 

Hung  sleeping  ;  or,  if  seated,  Spread  around  ; 

But  now  a  thousand  serpoftls  hissed  the  ear, 

And  from  their  eyes  shot  madness.     Otus  fought, 

And  Ephialtes,  and  the  iron  blows 

Of  Steropes  and  Brontes  clashed  in  air. 

The  triple-hundred  hands  of  Gyes  leagued 

With  Cottus  and  Briareus,  searched  the  gloom, 

And  dragged  down  winged  squadrons,  as  the  arts 

Of  fowlers  in  a  snare  surprise  their  prey. 

And  loud  Typhceus,  fierce,  together  drove 

Whole  armies  whirled  and  crushed,  or  wide  dispersed 

With  storms  blown  east  and  west,  and  north  and  south ; 

As  when  a  tempest  with  the  fluttering  leaves 

Of  a  stripped  forest  plays,  and  on  the  air 

The  scattered  tresses  of  shorn  Ceres  strows. 

But  who,  though  frenzied  with  a  strength  like  theirs, 
And  by  heroic  meditation  stern 
Trained  like  an  athlete  for  the  mighty  theme, 
Would  dare  to  sing  the  strife  where  powers  diverse, 


162  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

Diversely  armed,  and  numberless  to  thought, 
Ranged,  in  one  field,  the  depths  and  heights  of  hell ; 
To  see,  if  sight  might  be,  as  from  the  peak 
Of  a  jarred  mountain  one  beholds  the  sea 
Beneath,  and  storm  above,  and  vapor  mixed, 
In  the  wild  clouds,  with  light  and  glancing  fire, 
And  all  the  sky  involved  with  one  wide  wreck 
Of  solid  earth,  in  whirlwind,  with  torn  trees 
And  human  fabric  in  the  darkened  air : 
Or  as  if  rather  the  essential  powers 
Of  water,  earth,  air,  fire,  at  once  should  meet, 
In  naked  elemental  force,  to  try 
Which  should  destroy  and  reign ;  nor  might  it  seem 
Less  greatly  terrible  when  the  four  chief  powers 
Of  hell  encountered,  in  a  war  that  left 
No  second  battle  theirs,  but  one  full  act 
Of  many  made,  and  all  the  lingering  plot 
And  circumstantial  march  of  ruin  marred 
With  the  swift  access  of  inbreaking  death. 
But  suddenly  on  the  night,  the  element 
Of  tumult  now,  as  once  of  silence,  fell 
A  vast  and  spreading  circle  of  clear  light, 
That  from  the  side  next  paradise  encroached 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  163 

Upon  the  darkness,  thickened  more  beyond ; 

And  soon  revealed  the  vexed  and  horrid  space 

With  all  its  battle  painted  clear,  and  held 

Distinct  in  its  bright  orb,  in  depth  and  height 

And  utmost  bounds  ;  as  if  celestial  day 

Had  windowed  their  opaque  dark  roof,  and  purged 

The  atmospheric  dross  from  all  the  clime  ; 

And,  on  its  edge,  swept  in  vast  demi-cirque, 

The  host  of  angels,  unconcealed,  it  drove 

Wide  o'er  their  foes  beneath ;  and  far  beyond 

Alighting,  they  began  retreat,  by  these 

Close  followed  :  with  what  cause  for  fear 

Behold,  and  wonder — One  of  human  shape, 

In  simple  guise,  unarmed,  and  o'er  his  head 

A  white  and  hovering  dove  !  and  far  behind, 

On  all  sides  flocking  to  this  emblem  fair 

As  to  a  standard,  legions  wide-displayed, 

And  deep  with  multitude,  the  prospect  closed  ; 

But  without  spear  or  martial  sign  or  sound, 

Clad  in  the  candid  drapery  of  peace. 

Yet  were  their  garments  clear  not  touched,  nor  feet 

Pained  by  the  burning  soil ;  for,  godlike,  they 

In  moving  walked  not,  but  came  gliding  smooth, 


164  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

.'  Like  stars  adown  the  sky,  or  clouds  along 
The  unimprinted  air  moved  by  the  wind. 
As  from  its  shores,  a  shining  river  floats, 
(Such  things  are  told)  unmingled  through  a  pool, 
So  came  the  argent  host ;  and  from  the  van 
Of  glory,  seeking  darkness  and  the  shades 
Of  deeper  regions,  all  the  dusky  bands 
Before  them  fled,  like  night  before  the  morn. 

Oh  !  that  the  voice  were  mine,  and  mine  the  ear 
And  visionary  power  of  that  inspired 
First  builder  of  a  Christian  song,  whose  speech 
Prophetic,  laboring  things  too  high  for  verse, 
Foretold  the  end  of  time — doomed  at  the  sound 
And  dreadful  confirmation  by  the  hand 
Of  that  eternal  angel  on  the  earth 
And  restless  sea  upborne — and  all  the  scenes 
Of  glory  and  of  darkness  in  the  act 
Of  consummated  earth,  and  heaven  withdrawn 
With  awful  pomp,  and  solemn  trumpets  blown. 
Pouring  alternate  ecstasy  and  loud  woe. 
I  too  must  sing  of  judgment :  not  thy  theme, 
Celestial  seer,  the  mid-air  throne  and  throng 
Beneath,  paining  the  eye  with  multitudes 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  165 

-    v 

From  the  discovered  depths  of  earth  and  sea 
Uprising  to  the  world-dissolving  trump, 
And  filliifgJueast  and  west  and  high  and  deep, — 
But  of  the  angels,  fallen  first,  and  so 
Prejudged  in  him  their  head,  and  head  no  less 
Of  human  faction  :     On  whom  now  retired, 
Before  the  unshadowed  face  of  heaven  expressed 
In  human  lineaments,  both  friends  and  foes, 
And  monstrous  things  and  shapes,  a  gloomy  rout 
From  the  extremest  boundaries  of  pain. 
"Why  done,  or  with  what  hope  none  knew  ;  but  him 
They  knew  the  greatest,  and  to  where  he  sat, 
Still  like  their  god,  though  bowed,  and  by  despair 
Self-turned  to  stone,  cast  up  an  awful  look 
Of  doubt  and  supplication.     He  his  eyes 
Fixed  on  the  spectacle,  like  one  long  blind. 
Who  stares,  suspectful  of  some  dread  approach ; 
Then  half  uprose,  and  thrice  again  made  feint 
Of  rising,  ere  the  strength  in  his  pale  limbs 
His  stubborn  heart  diffused  to  bear  him  up : 
But  stood,  at  length,  with  air  supreme  o'er  fear, 
A  shape  of  heaven,  or  with  such  look  and  mien 
As  God  himself,  who  now  in  human  form 


166  CHRIST      IN      HADES. 

He  dared  confront,  had  rather  been  arrayed, 
Shaped  to  the  eye  of  heroes,  when  they  prayed 
To  Jove  the  arbiter.     Soon,  through  the  ranks, 
Opening  in  vista  wide  and  deep,  he  moved 
To  meet  the  bright  invasion.     Armed  he  came, 
Plutonian,  measureless,  and  dread  as  night ; 
Whose  king  indeed  he  seemed,  and  fit  to  reign 
Over  all  powers  ;  and  wide  around  he  cast 
A  darkness  at  his  coming,  as  a  storm 
That  from  the  ridge  of  some  bleak  mountain  torn 
With  all  its  clouds,  moves  down  in  earth  and  sky 
To  overwhelm  the  sun.     But  when  his  strides 
Had  measured  half  the  space — with  what  design 
Who  knows  but  He  who  gave  him  power  thus  far  ?- 
He  faltered,  and  with  haughty  steps  reversed, 
Before  the  calm  severity  of  mien 
And  feature  in  his  opposite,  retired  ; 
But  lingered  so,  and  sought  against  the  shame 
Of  his  retreat  to  hold  himself  upstayed, 
Each  backward  step  impressed  the  bedded  flint 
Whereon  he  set  his  strength  and  sought  to  stand  ; 
Till  at  the  gates  of  the  dark  fort  which  held 
The  keys  of  heavenly  access,  and  of  that  pit 


CHRIST      IN      HADES.  167 

Sole  egress,  their  appointed  keeper  paused. 

Immense  they  stood,  shut  by  almighty  power, 

And  barred  secure  against  less  force  and  skill 

In  human  or  infernal  siege  applied. 

And  here,  at  bay,  the  great  apostate  turned 

Full  on  his  enemy,  and  frowned  despair ; 

And  roused  his  strength,  and  to  his  soul,  sublime 

With  sense  of  single  greatness,  while  his  host 

Stood  imbecile,  up-summoned  for  this  hour 

The  thoughts  of  all  that  he  had  been  in  heaven, 

Or  hoped  or  claimed  on  earth,  or  held  in  hell. 

With  steady  front  advanced  the  shining  siege  ; 
The  unarmed  army  onward,  and  converged, 
Came,  glorious  with  numbers :  but  alone 
Moved  their  eternal  leader,  and  from  far 
His  aspect  shone  with  unremitted  beam 
Direct  on  Satan  :  He  his  dusky  shield — 
That  heretofore,  thrown  back, -his  gloomy  head 
Around,  and  on  his  mighty  shoulders  lay 
Like  the  horizon  on  the  earth  at  eve — 
Cast  forward,  drooping  his  huge  spear,  inclined, 
But  not  full-levelled.     All  the  host  of  saints 
Stood  still,  and  fatal  sympathy  first  moved 


168  '     C  H  R  I  9.T;        flH  A  D  E  S 


A  murmur  in  his>Gwa*Jft%  siirrnberous  stir 
As  of  awaking  vjiirt.  ^bj^^w^rd  and  more  near 

' 


Came  the'6el:e^tial^i^^nen  once  again 

He  moved,  and  wTth  a  forward  step  shook  hell. 

But  at  the  instant,  as  with  lightning  struck, 

Though  none  perceived  the  stroke,  with  arms  upthrown, 

Self-hurled,  on  the  disputed  gates  he  fell, 

And  ruined  down  their  strength  ;  nor  fell  alone, 

But  all  his  host  the  silent  thunder  felt, 

And  smote,  with  wide  and  simultaneous  roar 

Of  armored  limbs,  the  adamantine  floor. 

But  other  noise  soon  rung,  and  from  the  saints 
Hosannah,  and  hosannah  !  sweet  and  loud, 
In  that  deep  cavern,  from  the  echoing  air 
Sunk  far  beneath  the  roots  of  earth,  as  sung 
By  warbling  seraphs  in  the  top  of  heaven. 

Now  as  the  golden  wheel  of  day  that  climbs 
The  precipice  of  the  world,  on  that  side  whence 
He  shines  at  morning  —  brightening,  as  he  comes, 
Forests  and  craggy  heights  and  seas  and  fields  — 
To  early  eyes,  throws  high  into  the  air, 
Opaque,  or  formless  void,  his  welcome  light, 
And  shapes  the  dark  with  splendid  fantasy, 


CHRIST     IN      HADES.  169 

While  hovering  glories  stoop  upon  Lis  beam, 
And  crimson  clouds  troop  in  the  bannered  east; 
So  in  the  gloomy  steeps  and  utmost  height, 
Zenith,  and  all  sides  round,  of  teeming  hell, 
Angels  on  cloudy  wings  hung  looking  down ; 
Or  in  the  radiance  hovered  ;  or,  on  high, 
In  peopled  vistas  opening  into  heaven, 
With  bosom-seraphim,  transcendent  shapes, 
And  awful  cherubim,  before  unseen 
In  earth  or  heaven,  stood  creation's  grand 
And  glittering  guardians,  not  revealed  till  now, 
Lest  deemed  allies  at  need  ;  and  gazed,  while  Christ 
And  all  the  armies  beatific  passed, 
In  bright  defile,  o'er  Satan,  where  he  lay 
Along  the  heap  that  thundered  in  his  fall, 
Supine,  with  upward  face :  But  not  o'erclimbed 
By  men  thus  easily,  without  wings  to  stead, 
Had  been  the  prostrate  fiend.     Then  rose  they  all 
Into  the  air,  and  swift  the  plumy  throng, 
Encircling,  held  them  in  their  bright  caress. 
And  in  the  midst,  the  cloud  which  that  old  fane 
Made  glorious  with  apparition  of  a  form 
Of  human  aspect,  by  awed  priests  beheld, 
8 


170  CHRIST     IN     HADES. 

Keceived  its  body  now  ;  and  like  one  cloud 

Together  rose  the  whole ;  while  from  the  air 

A  voice  fell  on  the  ear  of  each  beneath. 

But  seemed  in  Satan's,  sole  to  him  addressed — 

"  The  Foe  is  judged."     And  still  their  eyes  they  turned, 

And  still  their  looks  hung  on  the  rising  host, 

Till  seen  like  a  receding  sun,  and  then, 

In  the  blank  height  of  darkness,  like  a  star  ; 

And  then  the  darkness  covered  all,  but  still 

They  looked  into  its  depths,  nor  stirred  nor  spake. 


NOTES. 


NOTES. 


BOOK  I. 

1.—   .    .    .  sat  Aldoneus  discrowned. 

The  propriety  of  giving  Satan,  as  king  of  Hades,  the  classical 
name  of  Aldoneus,  needs  only  to  be  suggested. 


2. —  .     .     .  that  his  pride  may  play  at  Jove. 

There  is  perhaps  no  occasion  for  explaining  why  those  who 
represent  in  Hades  the  ethnic  deities,  sometimes  give  the  Supreme 
Being  the  name  of  Jove. 

3. — but  in  the  west 

The  elect  infernal  queen,     .     .     . 

Astarte  or  Ashtaroth,  the  Diana  of  the  Phenicians,  and  thus 
identified  with  the  Persephono  of  the  Greeks. 


174  NOTES. 


BOOK  II. 

1. — In,  the  same  world  of  demons  and  damned  men. 

It  may  not  be  thought  superfluous,  perhaps,  to  explain  why 
Paradise  and  the  place  to  which  custom  gives  and  limits  the 
name  of  Hell,  are  made  regions  of  the  same  place. 

"The  word  Hades,  which  occurs  eleven  times  in  the  New 
Testament,  and  is  very  frequently  used  in  the  Septuagint  transla 
tion  of  the  Old,  never  signifies  in  Scripture  the  place  of  torment, 
but  always  the  place  appropriated  for  the  common  reception  of 
departed  souls.  There  is  no  single  word  in  our  language  that 
has  this  signification.  Homer,  Hesiod,  Plato,  and  other  Greek 
writers,  distinguish  Hades  from  Tartarus,  which  was  the  place  of 
punishment  for  the  wicked." — Tomline's  Exposition  of  the  Third 
Article. 

"  Our  English,  or  rather  Saxon  word,  Ml,  in  its  original  sig 
nification  (though  it  is  now  understood  in  a  more  limited  sense), 
exactly  answers  to  the  Greek  word  Hades,  and  denotes  a  con 
cealed  or  unseen  place ;  and  this  sense  of  the  word  is  still  re 
tained  in  the  eastern,  and  especially  in  the  western  counties  of 
England;  to  hell  over  a  thing  is  to  cover  it." — Parkhursfs  Greek 
Lexicon;  word  "AS^s. 

"By  Hell  may  be  meant  the  invisible  place  to  which  departed 
souls  are  carried  after  death ;  for  though  the  Greek  word  so  ren 
dered  does  now  commonly  stand  for  the  place  of  the  damned, 
and  has  for  many  ages  been  so  understood,  yet,  at  the  time  of 
writing  the  New  Testament,  it  was  among  Greek  authors  used 


NOTES.  175 

indifferently  for  the  place  of  all  departed  souls,  whether  good  or 
bad ;  and  by  it  were  meant  the  invisible  regions  where  those 
spirits  were  lodged.  *  *  *  *  That  the  regions  of  the  blessed 
were  known  then  to  the  Jews  by  the  name  of  Paradise,  as  hell 
was  known  by  the  name  of  Gehenna,  is  very  clear  from  Christ's 
last  words,  '  to-day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in  Paradise.'  " — Burnet 
on  the  Third  Article. 

That  our  Lord  gives  the  weight  of  his  authority  to  the  Jewish 
opinion  that  Paradise  and  Gehenna  were  in  the  same  region  of 
space— the  place  of  all  departed  souls,  supposed  by  them  to  be 
the  under-world — is  proved  by  the  parable  of  Dives  and  Lazarus, 
in  which  a  soul  in  torment  and  one  of  the  blessed  are  made  to 
converse  with  each  other  across  a  gulf. 


2. — of  earthly  saints 

Born  ere  their  Saviour — till  that  Saviour's  power 
Should  break  its  shadowy  door  and  set  them  free — 
The  sad  Elysium 

"Inferiora  [Eph.  IV.  9]  autcm  terras  infernus  accipitur,  ad 
quern  Dominus  noster  Salvatorque  descendit,  ut  Sanctorum  ani- 
mas,  quae  ibi  tenebantur  inclusae,  secum  ad  ccelos  Victor  abdu- 
ceret." — St.  Jerome. 

"  Nihil  aliud  teneatis  nisi  quod  vera  fides  per  catholicam  eccle- 
siam  docet ;  quia  descendens  ad  inferos  Dominus  illos  solum- 
modo  ab  inferni  claustris  eripuit,  quos  viventes  in  carne  per 
suam  gratiam  in  fide  et  bona  operatione  scrvavit."— Gregory  the 
Great. 

"  The  end  for  which  the  soul  of  Christ  descended  into  hell  was 


176  NOTES. 

not  to  deliver  any  damned  souls,  or  to  translate  them  from  the  tor 
ments  of  hell  unto  the  joys  of  heaven.  The  next  consideration  is, 
whether  by  virtue  of  his  descent,  the  souls  of  those  which  before 
believed  in  him,  the  patriarchs,  the  prophets,  and  all  the  people  of 
God,  were  delivered  from  that  place  and  state  in  which  they  were 
before ;  and  whether  Christ  descended  into  hell  to  that  end,  and 
that  he  might  translate  them  into  a  place  far  more  glorious  and 
happy.  This  hath  been  in  the  latter  ages  of  the  Church  the 
common  opinion  of  most  men,  and  that  as  if  it  followed  necessa 
rily  from  the  denial  of  the  former  :  He  delivered  not  the  souls  of 
the  damned,  therefore  he  delivered  the  souls  of  them  which  be 
lieved,  and  of  them  alone ;  till  at  last  the  schools  have  followed  it 
so  fully  that  they  deliver  it  as  a  point  of  faith  and  infallible  cer 
tainty,  that  the  soul  of  Christ,  descending  into  hell,  did  deliver 
from  thence  all  the  souls  of  the  saints  which  were  in  the  bosom 
of  Abraham,  and  did  confer  upon  them  actual  and  essential  beati 
tude,  which  before  they  enjoyed  not.  And  this  they  lay  upon 
two  grounds:  first,  That  the  souls  of  saints  departed  saw  not 
God;  and  secondly,  That  Christ  by  his  death  opened  the  gate  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven." — Pearson  on  the  Creed. 

3. — A  shape  like  man ;    .     .     . 

"  As  Christ  died  for  us  and  was  buried,  so  also  it  is  to  be  be 
lieved  that  he  went  down  into  hell." — Article  III. 

"That  Christ  descended  into  hell  is  not  expressly  asserted  by 
any  of  the  Evangelists  ;  but  they  all  relate  that  he  expired  upon 
the  cross,  and  that  after  three  days  he  again  appeared  alive ; 
and  therefore  it  may  be  inferred  that  in  the  intermediate  time  his 


NOTES.  177 

soul  went  into  the  common  receptacle  of  departed  souls." — Tomline 
on  the  Third  Article. 

"  Several  places  of  Scripture  have  been  produced  by  the  an 
cients  as  delivering  this  truth ;  of  which  some,  without  ques 
tion,  prove  it  not ;  but  there  are  those  which  have  always  been 
thought  of  greatest  validity  to  confirm  this  article.  First,  that 
of  St.  Paul  to  the  Ephesians  seems  to  come  to  very  near  the 
words  themselves,  and  to  express  the  same  almost  in  terms : 
1  Now  that  he  ascended,  what  is  it  but  that  |he  first  descended 
into  the  lower  parts  of  the  earth?'  This  many  of  the  ancient 
Fathers  understood  of  the  descent  into  hell  as  placed  in  the  lower 
parts  of  the  earth ;  and  this  exposition  must  be  confessed  so 
probable,  that  there  can  be  no  argument  to  disprove  it.  *  *  *  * 

"  The  next  place  of  Scripture  brought  to  confirm  the  descent  is 
not  so  near  in  words,  but  thought  to  signify  the  end  of  that 
descent,  and  that  part  of  his  humanity  by  which  he  descended. 
For  Christ,  saith  St.  Peter,  '  was  put  to  death  in  the  flesh,  and 
quickened  by  the  Spirit,  by  which  also  he  went  and  preached 
unto  the  spirits  in  prison.'  Where  the  Spirit  seems  to  be  the 
soul  of  Christ,  and  the  spirits  in  prison,  the  souls  of  them  that 
were  in  hell,  or  in  some  place  at  least  separated  from  the  joys  of 
heaven ;  whither,  because  we  never  read  our  Saviour  went  at  any 
other  time,  we  may  conceive  he  went  in  spirit  there,  when  his  soul 
departed  from  his  body  on  the  cross.  This  did  our  Church  first 
deliver  as  the  proof  and  illustration  of  the  descent,  [see  note  1,  to 
Book  IV.]  and  the  ancient  Fathers  did  apply  the  same  in  like 
manner  to  the  proof  of  this  article.  *  *  *  *  The  third,  but 
principal  text,  is  that  of  David,  applied  by  St.  Peter :  '  For 
David  spcaketh  concerning  him,  I  foresaw  the  Lord  always  be 
fore  my  face ;  for  he  is  on  my  right  hand  that  I  should  not  be 


178  NOTES. 

moved.  Therefore  did  my  heart  rejoice,  and  my  tongue  was 
glad ;  moreover  also  my  flesh  shall  rest  in  hope  :  because  thou 
wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in  hell,  neither  suffer  thy  Holy  One  to  see 
corruption.'  Thus  the  Apostle  repeated  the  words  of  the  Psalmist 
(xvi.  8-10)  and  then  applied  them ;  he  '  being  a  prophet,  and 
seeing  this  before,  spake  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  that  his 
soul  was  not  left  in  hell,  neither  his  flesh  did  see  corruption.' 
(Acts  xi.  25,  &c.)  Now,  from  this  place  the  Article  is  clearly  and 
infallibly  deduced  thus :  If  the  soul  of  Christ  were  not  left  in  hell 
at  his  resurrection,  then  his  soul  was  in  hell  before  his  resurrec 
tion  ;  but  it  was  not  there  before  his  death ;  therefore,  upon  or 
after  his  death,  and  before  his  resurrection,  the  soul  of  Christ 
descended  into  hell ;  and  consequently,  the  Creed  doth  truly  de 
liver,  that  Christ  being  crucified,  was  dead,  buried,  and  descended 
into  hell.  For  as  his  flesh  did  not  see  corruption  (by  virtue  of 
that  promise  and  prophetical  expression),  and  yet  it  was  in  the 
grave,  the  place  of  corruption,  where  it  rested  in  hope  until  his 
resurrection ;  so  his  soul,  which  was  not  left  in  hell  (by  virtue  of 
the  like  promise  or  prediction),  was  in  that  hell  where  it  was  not 
left,  until  the  time  that  it  was  to  be  united  to  the  body,  for  the 
performing  of  the  resurrection.  We  must  therefore  confess  from 
hence,  that  the  soul  of  Christ  was  in  hell :  And  no  Christian  can 
deny  it,  saith  St.  Augustin : 

"  '  Quis  ergo  nisi  infidelis  negaverit  fuisse  apud  inferos  Chris 
tum  V  " — Pearson  on  the  Creed. 

"  Seeing  it  is  a  most  certain  truth  that  our  Saviour's  soul  did 
immediately  go  into  the  place  appointed  to  receive  happy  souls 
after  their  recession  from  the  body,  and  resignation  into  God's 
hands ;  if  we  take  hell  in  a  general  and  common  sense  for  the 
place  or  the  state  of  souls  departed ;  and  descending  for  passing 


NOTES.  179 

thereinto  (by  a  falling,  as  it  were,  from  life,  or  by  going  away 
together  with  the  descent  of  the  body ;  and  thence  styled  de 
scending  ;  what  appeareth  visibly  happening  to  the  body  being 
accommodated  unto  the  soul) ;  if,  I  say,  we  do  thus  interpret  our 
Saviour's  descent  into  hell  for  his  soul's  going  into  the  common 
receptacle  and  mansion  of  souls,  we  shall,  so  doing,  be  sure  not  to 
substantially  mistake." — Barrow,  Ser.  XXVIII. 


BOOK    III. 

1. — Magog  and  great  Madai  old. 

I  have  somewhere  met  with  the  opinion,  sustained  by  plausi 
ble  reasoning,  that  the  descendants  of  Magog,  the  son  of  Japheth, 
peopled  northern  and  eastern  Asia.  That  Madai's  descendants 
moved  toward  the  east,  is  evidenced  by  what  seems  to  be  a 
relic  of  the  name  in  Media  and  the  Medes. 

2.— Azracl. 
The  angel  of  death,  in  the  superstition  of  the  East. 

BOOK    IV. 

1. — and  these  words 

Spake, 

"Being  put  to  death  in  the  flesh,  but  quickened  by  the 
Spirit,  by  which  also  he  went  and  preached  unto  the  spirits  in 
prison."—^.  Peter. 


180  NOTES. 

"The  body  of  Christ  lay  in  his  grave  until  his  resur 
rection;  but  his  spirit,  which  he  gave  up,  was  with  the  spirits 
which  were  detained  in  prison,  or  in  hell,  and  preached  unto 
them  as  the  place  in  St.  Peter  testifleth."—  The  Third  Article, 
as  first  published  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI. 

"But  in  them  [the  words  of  St.  Peter J,  taken  in  their  most 
literal  and  obvious  meaning,  we  find  not  only  a  distinct  assertion 
of  the  fact,  that  '  Christ  descended  into  hell'  in  his  disem 
bodied  spirit,  but,  moreover,  a  declaration  of  the  business 
upon  which  he  went  thither,  or  in  which,  at  least,  his  soul  was 
employed  while  it  was  there.  '  Being  put  to  death  in  the 
flesh,  but  quickened  by  the  Spirit,  by  which  also  he  went  and 
preached  unto  the  spirits  in  prison,  which  were  sometime  dis 
obedient.'  The  interpretation  of  the  whole  passage  turns  upon 
the  expression,  '  spirits  in  prison ;'  the  sense  of  which  I  shall 
first,  therefore,  endeavor  to  ascertain,  as  the  key  to  the  meaning 
of  the  whole.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  mention,  that  the 
'  spirits '  here  can  signify  no  other  spirits  than  the  souls  of 
men ;  for  we  read  not  of  any  preaching  of  Christ  to  any  other 
race  of  beings  than  mankind.  The  assertion  of  the  Apostle, 
therefore,  is  this — that  Christ  went  and  preached  to  the  souls  of 
men  in  prison.  The  invisible  mansion  of  departed  spirits, 
though  certainly  not  a  place  of  penal  confinement  to  the  good, 
is,  nevertheless,  in  some  respects  a  prison.  It  is  a  place  of 
seclusion  from  the  external  world — a  place  of  unfinished  hap 
piness,  consisting  in  rest,  security,  and  hope,  more  than  in 
enjoyment.  It  is  a  place  into  which  the  souls  of  men  never 
would  have  entered  had  not  sin  introduced  death,  and  from 
which  there  is  no  exit  by  any  natural  means  for  those  who  have 
once  entered.  The  deliverance  of  the  saints  from  it  is  to  be 


NOTES.  181 

effected  by  our  Lord's  power.  It  is  described  in  the  old  Latin 
language  as  a  place  inclosed  within  an  impassable  fence ;  and  in 
the  poetical  parts  of  Scripture  it  is  represented  as  secured  by 
gates  of  brass,  which  our  Lord  is  to  batter  down;  and  barri- 
cadoed  with  huge  massive  iron  bars,  which  he  is  to  cut  in 
sunder.  As  a  place  of  confinement,  therefore,  though  not  of 
punishment,  it  may  well  be  called  a  prison.  The  original  word, 
however,  in  the  text  of  the  Apostle,  imports  not  of  necessity  so 
much  as  this,  but  merely  a  place  of  safe-keeping.  For  so  this 
passage  might  be  rendered  with  great  exactness  :  '  He  went 
and  preached  to  the  spirits  in  safe-keeping.'  *  *  *  *  The 
souls  in  custody,  to  whom  our  Saviour  went  in  his  disembodied 
soul  and  preached,  were  those  who  were  sometime  disobedient. 
The  expression  '  sometime  were,'  or  '  one  while  had  been  dis 
obedient,'  implies  that  they  were  recovered,  however,  from  that 
disobedience,  and,  before  their  death,  had  been  brought  to  re 
pentance  and  faith  in  a  Redeemer  to  come.  To  such  souls  he 
went  and  preached.  But  what  did  he  preach  to  departed  souls  7 
and  what  could  be  the  end  of  his  preaching  1  *  *  *  *  If  ho 
went  to  proclaim  to  them  (and  to  proclaim  or  publish  is  the 
true  sense  of  the  words  '  to  preach ')  the  glad  tidings  that  he 
had  actually  offered  the  sacrifice  of  their  redemption,  and  was 
about  to  appear  before  the  Father  as  their  intercessor,  in  the 
merit  of  his  own  blood,  this  was  a  preaching  fit  to  be  addressed 
to  departed  souls,  *  *  *  *  and  this,  it  may  be  presumed, 
was  tho  end  of  his  preaching."— Bishop  Horscly. 


182  NOTES. 


BOOK    VI. 

1. — From  old  lapetus. 

"The  sons  of  Japhcth  (Impetus);  Gomer,  and  Magog,  and 
Madai,  and  Javan  (loan),  and  Tubal,  and  Meshech,  and 
Tiras."—  Gen.  x.  2. 

2. — And  from  fair  Gomer. 

From  Gomer,  Gomeria,  or  Cimmeria,  and  probably  Ger- 
mania — a  derivation  that  will  seem  forced  only  to  those  unac 
customed  to  trace  the  etymology  of  national  and  local  names. 


BOOK    VI. 

1. —  .  .  .  there,  with  the  Asar  and  Asynior,  sit 
The  Einherier  and  Valkyrior. 

The  Asar  (Asiatics)  were  the  Gods,  or,  rather,  a  divine  race 
of  men.  The  Asynior  were  the  females  of  the  race.  The  Einhe 
rier  were  human  heroes,  raised  by  their  bravery  to  sit  in  the 
Valhalla  with  the  Gods.  The  Valkyrior  were  the  warlike 
Houries  of  the  Northern  Paradise. 

2. —  The  Berserker,  who  scorn  armor  and  arms. 

"The  champions  of  the  north  were  called  Berserker,  in  the 
old  tongue,  from  bcr,  bare,  and  sekr,  a  garment ;  because  they 


NOTES.  183 

wore  no  armor  in  battle.  They  are  described  by  almost  all  the 
northern  writers  as  men  of  extraordinary  stature  and  force,  sub 
ject  to  sudden  and  violent  attacks  of  passion,  under  the  influence 
of  which  their  fury  was  ungovernable,  and  as  formidable  to  their 
natural  friends  as  to  their  enemies."— Herbert.  Hora  Scandictc, 
Note  to  Helga. 

3.— Bleak  Niffelheim  from  Muspelheim. 
Niffelheim,  the  region  of  cold ;  Muspelheim,  of  heat. 

4.— the  Song 

Of  Ragnarok  .... 

The  twilight  of  the  Gods.     For  this  specimen  of  genuine 
Norse  frenzy,  see  Turner's  History  of  the  Anglo-Saxons. 


BOOK    VIII. 

1.—  The  Jotuns 

The  dark,  hostile  powers  of  Nature,  they  figured  to  them 
selves  as  Jotuns,  Giants — huge  shaggy  beings,  of  a  demoniac 
character.  Frost,  Fire,  Sea,  Tempest— these  are  the  Jotuns.— 
Carlyk. 


THE  END. 


